


If I could turn back time

by Misty123



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, New Tricks
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-30
Updated: 2016-10-12
Packaged: 2018-08-12 00:03:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 22
Words: 35,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7912648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Misty123/pseuds/Misty123
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Severus snape disaapears after his NEWTS, his brother Tobias asks UCOS to investigate his disapearance</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. prologue ot it has to be enough

**Author's Note:**

> I will say this only once, I do not own any of the characters form Harry Potter or New Tricks, nor am I making money out of this story, I am only playing with them, this story is more about the effect of bullying, and starting forming after reading It started after a patrol, and harry new family by grugster both on fanfiction.net, needlessly to say my stories are set in an alternative universe, There is character bashing here, but per say Albus, he has his blinkers on which does effects the characters in the story. I just want to say thank you to sevlandexplorer for allowing me to use his ideas on the marauders map in this story, the map and the adaptation and development of remus lupin story is based upon his story visions of doom (on A03), please check out this good story.

Thaddeus Snape looked up from playing with the twins and their yuletide presents they had gotten, it was the muggle equilivant of boxing day. He had hoped that perhaps for a card this year, and had been astounded when had appeared on first day of Yuletide holiday, it has been short and to the point.

Father, Mother  
Happy Yuletide, I am safe and well, please do not look for me, for I can never return back to the family or magical society, too much has happened  
My biggest regret, never being the son you wanted or deserved.  
Enjoy the rest of your lives  
Love Severus Snape

It would have to be enough to know that his Severus his eldest son was alive and happy with his family, perhaps one day he would be able to tell Severus how proud of him he was, and he was exactly what he had wanted in a son, but was to stubborn to admit it.


	2. chapter 2

“Why? Tobias why? Are you going on this man hunt for your brother, you know it will upset your father, he has never really recovered from the disappearance of Severus your brother, all those years ago?” Albus questioned a man in his twenties, his potions professor and son in law.

“Because I have to know what happened to my brother, whether the death eaters killed him, nobody, and I mean nobody will answer questions about him. All I’ve been told is that he joined Voldemort’s group the death eaters, my parents, well my father really threw him out of the family after he got the dark mark at fifteen, he disappeared after leaving Hogwarts in his seventh year, the day after finishing his NEWTS, and nobody has heard from him since, I need to know, if not my parents what happened to him, and if this UCOS organisation can help find him, then so be it.”

“TOBIAS! Severus is dead, long dead, how many times do you have to be told, he’s dead, you joined the death eaters for life, the fact that he never got in contact with your parents, means to me that he is dead! Dead! and dragging this organisation into it won’t change the facts, only open large barely healed wounds of your parents, if for nobody but them, don’t do this, I hate to tell you this your brother was a bully, disliked by nearly everybody Tobias, it broke your parents hearts, especially your father when he joined the death eaters, or he wanted, well, truthfully, all we wanted was for your brother to tuen away from the dark and embrace the light, please Tobias, please son don’t do this, no good can come of this!”

“To late ALBUS, saw one of the detectives last week, their interested in opening the case, they have over 60% success rate in closing cases, in fact the more difficult the higher the success rate. So expect them to come calling and start asking questions, I for one have to know what happened to my brother.”

Tobias then turned around and left Albus office, he started to walk down to the dungeons to his office, he didn’t really have to do this, he could get to his office though the family quarters, but he needed the walk. But coming down the stairs from Albus office, he saw the main doors to the school open, and decided on a whim to walk outside, away from everybody, family, parents, in-laws, he needed to think, think about the brother he had never known, after all Severus had been thrown out of his parents’ house eighteen months before and his twin sister were born, he thought about the interview with the detective last week.

“Mr Snape, what do you know about your brother Severus, any information will be helpful, even as a starting point to the investigation if we start one.” And Tobias had told them what little he knew. He told them that his parents never talked about him, his mother wouldn’t answer questions and just cried when you tried to ask her, his father just walked out the room, and the only picture of him that Tobias could find, was when Severus was around thirteen with Lilly Potter nee Evans, there was a strained look on her face, as if she was ashamed to be seen with Severus, but a look of open adoration on Severus face. No matter what people said, Tobias could never see the young man in the photo as being evil incarnate, his sister had called him selfish but understood his need to find their brother, she was just worried what it would do to his parents, especially their father if they found his body. His wife, Albus daughter Ivy had said she reluctantly support him, but that no good would come of it, well so Merlin help him, he hoped that this UCOS could find out what happened to Severus, if he was dead then so be it, at least there would be closure for them all. 

Tobias sighed, striding up the path was the head auror James Potter, he had been in line for the head of the Auror division, only made possible it was rumoured by the contacts his family had in the then ministry of magic, but the muggle and magical governments had merged, and James arrogant twat, had found himself head of a little department in the Met police. It had even been rumoured that he had been in line for the head of this UCOS department, the magical ministry had pushed for it, but the Metropolitan Deputy chief of Police in charge of UCOS had threatened to disband UCOS before James could become head of it. Apparently the bloke hated anything or anyone magical, well he supposed that means they wouldn’t be able to investigate his brother. 

Oh this was not looking good, thought Tobias. James had spied Tobias and had turned to towards him, when he was in front of him he stopped grabbed Tobias and said “What the fuck is your problem Snape, you little shit, asking the Met to investigate the SUPPOSED disappearance of your fucking greasy waste of space death eater brother, you arsehole, you complete arsehole, do you know what you have fucking done, wanker!”

Tobias looked at the spitting auror, raised an eyebrow and replied “No, Auror POTTER, pray Merlin and lady Magic what have I done, with asking the Met to find out what HAPPENED TO MY BROTHER!”

“You, you little wanker, have only got UCOS to start asking fucking questions, about that death eater Severus, which means that they will not stop till they get a body or proof of his death, they will investigate everything regarding his disappearance, it’ll kill your parents, but you, you selfish little bastard don’t care, just as long as you find out what happened to him, well I’ll tell you for nothing, HE WAS FUCKING KILLED, AND FUCKING GOOD RIDDANCE TO BAD TRASH, HE WAS ALWAYS TROUBLE, IN LIFE, AND NOW IN FUCKING DEATH.” James shouted into his face.

And Tobias only answered to the above tirade “James, how are you so certain, that my brother is dead? Are you afraid that UCOS will find blood on your hands? Hmmm” And Tobias carried on walking down Hogwarts driveway to the village of Hogsmede, leaving behind an irate Auror Potter. 

Xxxxxxxxx

The head of the UCOS team Detective chief inspector Sandra Pullman, strode out of her office and called everybody in the group in a meeting, they were joined by her immediate boss Strickland. The small team included retired detectives Brian Lane (ex alcoholic with OCD), Jack Halford her unofficial second in command, still grieving for his murdered wife and Gerry Standing the cockney who was really from a French Huguenot background, that literally bet on the roll of a dice, he put gambler into gamblers anonymous. The three very different individuals of the team, shouldn’t have been able to work together, let alone be friends, comrades and have one of the highest success rates of the force. Deputy Assistant Commissioner Robert Strickland her direct boss, is unashamedly a political animal, but does look out for the team and he reports to his next in line Deputy chief of Met police Smith. 

The group looked expectantly at Strickland, he cleared he’s throat and started “UCOS as a department with your success rate, has been tasked with investigating the disappearance of a young man, age seventeen around twenty-five years ago, all other investigations now take a back seat, carry on Sandra.”

Sandra rolled her eyes and debriefed the team with the information they knew “A young man called Severus Snape who was seventeen and from a prominent and wealthy wizarding family, disappeared the last day of the wizarding A levels called NEWTS, he apparently walked out of Hogwarts the wizarding school and was never seen again. The only information that his brother has about him, is that at fifteen he was thrown out of the family home for joining a terrorist group called the death eaters, he apparently had been marked with a tattoo that summer, his father paid for his last two years of schooling at Hogwarts. It had been generally believed by all people who knew him then, that he was killed by either other death eaters, the aurors or by a member of the order of the phoenix, his brother Tobias has contacted us, he wants closure, apparently every death eater has been accounted for except for four, Severus is one of the four that was never accounted for, so we have to find out what has happened to him”

“why?” Gerry asked, then added “SIR!” to Strickland.

“To answer your question Gerry, as you know, relationships between the different police forces, normal and magical has been strained somewhat, the commissioner sees this as a way of showing the magical society and aurors that the normal police force is as good if not better than the magical police force” Strickland replied

“So simply, we have to close this case and find the body of this Severus guy, to give the finger to that arrogant git auror Potter, so no pressure then as normal” Jack supplied to the conversation.

“Well! As you can see, everybody including the commissioner and minister have the greatest faith in you finding this Severus body, and bringing closure to the family!” responded Strickland

Sandra just rolled her eyes again, oh yes, she thought just drop UCOS the hot potato of the month and run, and when we yet again pull the bloody rabbit out of the hat, nobody will thank us.

“So we find this Severus guy and unite him with his brother, or find his body and return it to the family” Brain added helpfully,” After all, it seems that everybody has killed him off, but he could be alive and living peacefully, with a wife and 2.2 children in normal society” Brain concluded.

“Brilliant, so if this poor bloke is alive, and living the good life, we just barge in and upset his apple cart, just like the bloody toffs, go after what they want and stuff the rest of us. Maybe, just maybe if Brian is right here, and this Severus guy is alive, the best thing for him would be to just leave him alone!”

“Well, yes Brian maybe correct, this is technically a missing persons case and we will have to see what we do Gerry if we find this Severus alive, if he wants no contact with his family, then we will respect his wishes.”

“So right then, as I said sir! No pressure then! And all to give auror bloody Potter the finger “Jack helpfully summed up for the team, and surprisingly Robert Strickland agreed with Jack Halford, but just couldn’t vocalise his support to the team.


	3. chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes the famous incidents of bullying that happened in the books also happen, and with unexpected effects on Severus life

Tobias entered the Hogs Head pub, ordered a drink and sat down and started to think, why was he surprised by people’s reactions to his wanting closure, he was twenty-five, the youngest potion master for two centuries, teaching at Hogwarts, as he really couldn’t stomach working for the family potion business, it wasn’t that he didn’t love his family, but he always felt that he was filling a place that his brother should have filled. His father Thaddeus never said anything to him, always praised him and his sisters, but he had always felt that he didn’t measure up, oh he was a potions prodigy, but he wasn’t the potions prodigy that Harry’s mother Lilly Potter talked about, when she could put two co-herent words together that is. It was one of the reasons that Harry didn’t drink, he mother was an alcoholic, her drink of taste was muggle vodka (apparently couldn’t taste it, or smell it), but anything alcoholic really. Lilly Potter only seemed happy when she so far gone that she only just remembers her family’s names, Harry’s father James, had always blamed her for his lack of advancement in the ministry. But according to Harry’s mother, his brother had been brilliant at potions, he had invented and improved potions, spells before he even started Hogwarts.

Tobias had once been at a conference, when a well-respected Potions master, had taken him to one side, and explained as nicely as possible that Tobias would never be as good as he dead brother at potions, hell the potions master had explained, Severus had been better than anyone at potions when he was fifteen, and then something had happened and at seventeen he disappeared, every family event his parents, especially father looked for someone coming in the front door, and every time they were disappointed, just one time Tobias wished for his parents to see his brother standing in the doorway. Unbeknownst to anyone, he knew the house elf’s at both the Snape manor always kept a triple layered lemon drizzle cake on hand, just for the time Severus return to them. Severus had apparently been the favourite of the house elf’s, the house elf’s had been apologetic and kind when they explained to him when he had been younger, that nobody could ever measure up or even replace in their hearts their poor Severus. But it was the fact that Ivy was expecting their third child this year after the five-year-old twins, which had made him want to find where Severus rested and bring him back home, where he could be mourned properly by his family.

Xxxxxx

Deputy Chief of for the Met police Severus Smith, was beyond pissed off, it wasn’t often that he was over ruled by the commissioner, but this was one of those times. He hadn’t wanted UCOS to investigate Snape’s disappearance, as far as he was concerned, just let sleeping dogs lie, it would have surprised Gerry Standing, that Severus shared his view point, but he had been over ridden by the commissioner, and his word was one level above Gods as the Met police was concerned. 

Severus looked out of his office window, thinking back to his life. Wondering if his father would be proud of him or still see him as the big disappointment, well he didn’t think he had done badly thank you. He had left school at seventeen, then joined the army as cannon fodder, which wasn’t surprising when you realised he had no qualifications that countered to his name. After his three years’ service he had left the army and joined the Met police, where he had completed his Open University degree, married and had three children, he had risen though the police ranks to this current position. He had long ago resigned himself to the fact that his father had never liked him, maybe loved him but he never liked him, only seeing the negative points that his parents friends and teachers had pointed out to him about Severus, his mother just stayed out of the way. When he was fifteen there had been a big argument, things had been said, decisions made that were irreversible, and all over a temporary tattoo of the rolling stones logo and the words Always be true underneath it, and at seventeen he had walked away from them all. The tattoo had been made permanent when left the Army, just before he joined the police. No he thought, he totally disagreed with the commissioner, you sometimes had to let sleeping dogs lie, he felt that nothing good was going to come out of the investigation. 

But on the plus side he didn’t have to deal with that arsehole auror James Potter, no one of his poor colleagues had that pleasure. No as a squib, he knew that no good could come of the wizarding and normal societies merging, as he knew to his cost, you couldn’t trust a wizard as far as you throw them, give him an honest psychopath any day of the week over a wizard. No he knew that the two societies should have stayed separate, wizards would always believe themselves superior to anybody else, and as he had learned to his cost at fourteen that would always protected their own.

Xxxxxxx

Thaddeus Snape sat in Albus Dumbledore office with this wife, listening as Albus muddled though an explanation regarding an investigation regarding Severus, their eldest son by the muggle police. If only he had known twenty-seven years ago, what heart ache laid in store when he threw Severus out of the house, tough love friends had advised him, a few years of fending for himself and Severus would come crawling back, Albus would be able to protect him, he would be able to turn his life around, it would be hard for Severus, but it would be necessary, and then he had disappeared the day after taking his final NEWTS. And hadn’t that been a surprise, from ten Outstanding’s in his OWLS to eight Trolls in his NEWTS, he could still remember Severus last words to him, when he seen his siblings for the one and only time, “I hope you can love them, even show that you care for them, because I would hate them to have the fucking life you gave me, I hate you, and you pretentious crap you believe, not once did you ask for my side of the story against Potter and his friends, well fuck you, I’m leaving, I’m going to make sure that I become the right hand man of Voldemort so I can personally repay you and the light side for my childhood” and with that he left, never to be seen again. If he could turn back time, then everything of course would be different, but he learnt from his mistakes, and things had been different with his three other children. After all the years that he had tried to mould Severus into his perfect son, he had lost him, he just wanted to have the one time to apologise and beg Severus forgiveness, just to see Severus once again standing in the doorway as he used to, shy and reserved but excited about a new potion or development he had made, and wanted to share with him. But he had made sure that Severus knew it wasn’t enough for him, that he could never be the perfect son like James Potter was. it was only after Severus left, that he found out form the house elf’s that Severus had started to Starve himself, because he thought that was the only control he had over his life, especially after his fourth year at Hogwarts, after an apparent incident that had happened.


	4. chapter 4

As with all ongoing investigations, there was an events board, which simply put had all relevant information, photos and timeline on it, Jack walked into UCOS office to find Brian hunched over his computer, trying to find something from the internet. Gerry as usual was on his second cup of coffee of the day, and pinning something on the board, Jack wandered over to take a look.

“What does these OWLS and NEWTS score mean, Gerry” asked Jack  
“Well, Brian here found from somewhere in a magical ministry the results of young Severus exams, you know the equivalent of our school leaving ones, now OWLS are like the GCSE for us, and NEWTS are our A level equivalent” explained Gerry 

“The grades are O for outstanding  
E for Exceeds expectations  
A for average  
P for poor  
T for Troll” Brian continued to explain helpfully to Jack.  
“But this can’t be right, you must have this wrong” Jack started to say “Nobody goes from getting all top marks in one exam level to absolute failure in the next exam level. This is like the exam results of two different people” Jack finished

“Look, Jack, perhaps Severus had major difficulties with the subjects at their A level standard, it happens” Gerry replied

“That, may be the case Gerry, he may have had difficulty, but why didn’t the teachers at the school notice, offer to help. It like they abandoned him, they must have noticed him failing or at least having difficulty in the subjects, come on, most schools would have ensured that at the very least he would have been entered for fewer subjects”

“Where, were the parents?” Sandra Pullman asked, entering the conversation having just entered the UCOS office “Surely they had to know he was failing in the subjects”

“Yeah, your both right” Gerry stated “It looks like everybody abandoned him, well at least over his school work”

“So, we need to find out a lot more about the life of Severus, we need to speak to friends, family, teachers, housemates and really anybody that knew him” Sandra suggested.

“Well, I’ll take on the school staff, see if I find out about friends, dislikes, likes and about the discrepancies in his exam results” Gerry volunteered

“Well! That leaves Jack and me to speak to the family members, and Jack! Best behaviour, don’t antagonise them please” Sandra ordered

“And what is Brain going to do, whist we speak to the family and the others” Gerry queried 

“Looking at the magical ministries records to gain any more information” Brain replied  
“Well that’s the day planned out” Jack helpfully answered for everyone

Xxxxxxxxxx  
Sandra knocked on the door with Jack by her side, the door opened to reveal the most ugliest but cutesiest creature they had seen.

“yes, what do you want” the creature asked  
“We are police officers with the police UCOS unit, and would like to have a word with Mr and Mrs Snape, if they are at home” Sandra asked very politely, showing her ID badge at the same time.

“Wait here, I see if Master Snape be available” the creature then disappeared  
“You, may see him, follow me please” the creature asked, the creature led the way to a downstairs room, “Master, be in the study”

“Master Snape, there be the two muggles wanting to see you”

“Thank you, Whiskey, please bring us refreshments and ask Mistress Snape to join us” asked Thaddeus Snape, as he rose out of his chair to greet them. “You must excuse Whiskey, and the other house elf’s, they don’t have much contact with muggles, and find you fascinating really. So what can I do for you, is this about the investigation that Albus Dumbledore told me and Eileen about the other day?” asked Thaddeus Snape

“Yes, it is, we have a few questions, and would like to see if you could give us a few photographs of Severus, that we could use in our investigation” responded Sandra

A mature woman joined them, at about the same moment that Whiskey returned with a tray laden with tea and cakes, sandwiches “Ah, Eileen please join us, let me introduce you to…..?” Thaddeus faulted.

Jack picked up the conversation “Sorry, we didn’t introduce ourselves, this is Detective Superintendent Pullman, and I’m Ex-Detective chief Superintendent Halford,”

“Well I am Thaddeus Snape, potions master first class, head of the Snape family and managing director of Snape potions, and this is my bonded Eileen Snape, and of course we will try to assist you as much as possible, please have a seat” responded Thaddeus.

The four adults sat down around the oak desk that took up the majority of the room, it matched the oak bookcases, that were filled with books, there were also glass cupboards and the odd filing cupboard in the room, it gave the impression of a comfortable office of a leading company CEO from the twentieth century.

Sandra looked to her second in command, as silently gave him permission to continue the conversation, she felt that the couple in front of them would respond better to a man being in charge than a woman. Jack smiled and started the questioning 

“As you are aware sir, you son Tobias has asked to investigate the disappearance of your eldest son Severus, around twenty-five years ago, we were wondering if you may have any ideas or information regarding that time”

“It was a long time ago, he’s dead auror Halford, my son is dead, so I don’t see the point of this investigation you should just leave the dead alone, let his memory rest in peace, you muggles have no respect for anything” The witch and mother responded angrily

“Now, Eileen you know these muggle aurors have their duty to do, a few questions and we will be left in peace again” Thaddeus tried to calm down his bonded

Jack took a deep breath, oh this interview was going to be a mine trap alright, why couldn’t he have gotten the bloody school staff “Our duty is to try to find out what happened to your eldest son, and to this, perhaps you can tell us what your relationship was like with Severus at the time of his disappearance” Jack continued

“We hadn’t spoken to him for two years prior to his disappearance, we had to try what the specialists call tough love, he had gotten quite out of control” answered Thaddeus

“Oh why don’t you just tell the truth, everybody knows you threw him out of the house and our lives during the summer holiday of his fifth year at Hogwarts, he won’t tell you, and everybody else will try to hide behind half-truths, but Severus came home with the dark mark of the death eater organisation, Thaddeus lost his temper and threw Severus out, not another penny from us, he would rather the family estates went to his nearest relatives the Potters then Severus he inform Severus. Seeing that James and Severus hated each other that was a good thing to say, well Severus left, Thaddeus as a boon to his….no our conscience he decided to pay the school fees till Severus graduated from Hogwarts…” Eileen finished

Sandra shared a look with Jack, well at least this account was similar to their sons Tobias account, but Eileen then further shocked them with what she then told them “But that was not the last time he saw us, he visited when the twins were six months, the last and only time he visited. He made it clear that he didn’t want to see either of us, ignored me and told Thaddeus that he wouldn’t be satisfied till he was Voldemort’s right hand man and had destroyed everything we believed in, oh yes Minerva’s tough love worked, we have never seen him again, don’t know now if he is alive or dead, but at least he didn’t turn out like that wa…..” 

“Eileen, that’s enough!” commandeered Thaddeus, “As you can see, Eileen still has not come to terms with the events of that time”

“Oh stop sugar coating the truth, they’ll find out eventually Thaddeus, Inspectors? My son Severus was being bullied….no I supposed you would could it torture really, our friends and children of the light liked to pick on Severus, their last stunt before Thaddeus threw Severus out, do you know what it was? No ….I’ll tell you then, they hung him naked upside down in front of most the school, it was a laugh you see, they just had a really stressful time, had to have a laugh, well apparently the school, even the teachers found it funny, Severus never came out of his house dormitories again that year, for four weeks he stayed in the Slytherin dormitories, thank god for Regulas and the Hogwarts house elf’s….they tried to ensure that he ate at lease, then he came home, had this mark on his forearm with writing, and Thaddeus promptly lost he temper at him and threw him out the house. Wasn’t till afterwards that the house elf’s told us, that he had been starving himself, couldn’t eat because every time he was lightly teased he vomited up his food, so it was easier to not eat at all in the end”

Sandra couldn’t stop herself from asking “Didn’t you do anything, contact the school ….A”

“Of course we did, but Minerva and the rest of teachers assured as they had the situation under control, he had to learn to live with it, it’s all part of growing up Albus would say. He was classed as the bully, one to four, four of them picked on him unmercifully…..but he was the bully. Then no matter what he did, how hard he tried, nothing was good enough for us well, he had to bring home outstanding on his report card, nothing else was good enough. When I look back, I feel shame and disgust, we and that school pushed him away, and may be to his death, so now you know aurors… you can understand why I want my sons memory left in peace, excuse me” Eileen then got up from the chair and walked out of the office.

The detectives turned towards Thaddeus, who had his head I his hands “We didn’t know, honest we didn’t know how bad it was, if I could turn back time, I would change everything but I can’t. The last two years of Severus schooling, Albus assured us that Severus was coping, that he was still top of his class, I had an potions apprenticeship lined up for him, then he disappeared and we got his NEWTS results and realised how bad it had gotten. But the worst thing I did, was as Eileen said, told him that I wished James Potter was my son, and he was one of the boys bullying Severus”

“Auror Potter?” Queried Sandra, looking at Halford, “Yes, the same, Alistair Moody resigned because of him, don’t really know the details” Thaddeus answered

“Do you have any photographs of Severus, we could have please, and who was this Regulas sir?” Jack asked softly

“Tobias, as the only photograph of Severus as a teenager as you would call him now, he didn’t like his picture being taken, we never pushed it. Didn’t think it was important, oh we have photos of when he was small” Thaddeus waved his hand at a group of photos on his desk, that showed a timid shy boy, that when he was coaxed to smile, had an engaging smile.

“Who is this Regulas, Sir” Sandra asked

“Oh, he is Regulas Black, the younger brother of Sirius black, he became a death eater. Lives quietly now in the country black manor, I don’t even know if he was friends with Severus, he might not remember him, it was so long ago now” Thaddeus answered them, with that the detectives got up made their excuses and left the Snape’s town manor, and started the drive back to the office.


	5. chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just a warning in most of my stories, the muggle and magical world know about it other, sorry I have always and will always see the muggle world as being more advanced then the magical world, so in this story the two ministries have merged, and this has led to problems, a main one being how the two communities view each other.

Sandra was relieved to find that Gerry, still hadn’t left for the school yet, Gerry explained that it was quicker to fly to Scotland and drive to the school from the airport, so to that end, Gerry and Brian would both be going to Hogwarts. Sandra then update them on the interview with Severus parents.

“So they knew Severus was being bullied, but left it up to the school, but why?” Gerry asked

Jack answered “They did, but in their defence, the school assured them that they were handling the bullying problem, and that it was just a part of growing up”

“Great, bully the kid and blame him at the same time, well his mother was correct, he’s life must have been hell, no wonder he went off straight and narrow. Bullying like that has produced the school shootings in America” Brain put in his contribution “But I found the latest Ofsted report on the school, it was given a grade 4 inadequate”

“But, why wasn’t that on the news at least, the premier magical school in the country and it gets the lowest scale from Ofsted possible?” questioned Gerry

“It seems that the government hid the report, to stop very unfavourable reactions from the magical community, the government thought that the magical community would think that Ofsted was just targeting them, you know with relations between the two groups, and then with the backlash by the normal community, they could have ” Brian continued

“Oh, I forgot! Everything magical is brilliant, I mean look at the magical transport to the bloody place, oh sir of course you can go to Hogwarts, one train a day to Hogsmede, eight bloody hours to get to Hogsmede station, then another hour carriage ride to the school. Nine hours in total. Now two to three hours max to fly and drive to the school, but no, the magical way is more efficient, and the price, its would be cheaper to hire out…….” 

“GERRY, for gods sake, we get the drift, the magical community have a big learning curve to go through, but it may be a bit much to ram down their throats that their premier secondary school is badly failing their students” jack countered

“Well, that’s okay then, they have a failing hospital, police service, a ministry that couldn’t organise a piss up in a brewery and now their kids are being taught to the lowest possible standard, but we can’t tell the poor little dears. Because it may upset them, NICE LOGIC” Gerry replied,” at this rate the children of the magic community have a big shock coming to them, when they leave their rosy towers and come into the real world”

“But, that’s the point Gerry, until recently the only standards that the magical community had to go by were their own, don’t forget that they kept themselves to themselves. So all this will be a shock to them, the government has to go carefully, and try to introduce better, efficient practice and changes slowly” Brain suggested.

“Great, well I hope that they can improve standards and stop the bullying, before another poor child is found missing or dead, because believe me Severus has not been the only child badly bullied at that school” Jack commented. “How many children from the school joined this death eater organisation because of being bullied and ostracised”

And that thought Sandra was the problem, the magical community thought itself so very superior to the normal community. This had led to problems with the two communities merging, had could the British Government improve the magical community public services, so they could integrate the two, when the magical ministry cried foul every time a report slated their services. But to be fair most of the magical community had welcomed the free health and other services, the difficult one was the integration of Hogwarts into the state education system. The magical community firmly believed that Hogwarts was the premier magical education system in the magical world, but it seemed that its standards were lower than some run down inner city schools, well at least she didn’t have to sort out that problem. 

After a discussion regarding the questions that the two other detectives would ask, the team called it a day, and went down to the nearest pub to socialise, before making their way home.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yes a bit of Dumbledore bashing, he deserves it - enjoy

Well, thank god for Easy Jet, thought Gerry as he and Brian made their way down the big driveway of Hogwarts school, and to think that this had been hidden for hundreds of years thought Gerry. A house elf appeared at the doorway of the castle, and led him upstairs to the Headmasters office. Gerry was shown into the office.

“Sit down my boys! Lemon drop?” asked Albus Dumbledore

Gerry sat down on a chair in front of the headmaster’s desk, and refused the lemon drops.  
“What do you want my boy?” Dumbledore asked Gerry, great, with I got the family now, Sandra won’t be pleased if I push him out of the window, patronising git, I am nobodies’ boy, thought Gerry, but wisely for him kept his counsel

“I suppose you are investigating that dreadful incident with the Snape boy. So sad, so sad, but these things happen in school you know!” continued Dumbledore, “Severus, was always trouble, from the second day of him starting at the school, his parents, especially his father Thaddeus tried to keep him on the straight and narrow, you know tried to ensure that stayed on the light side. It was absolutely awful when Severus disappeared, I understand why my son-in-law Tobias wants closure, but I have tried to explain to him that it shouldn’t be at the expense of his parent’s feelings, it took them a long time to come to terms with their lost, so sad, so sad….”

‘Oh yes, spare the parents feelings, wouldn’t have anything to do with you having a guilty conscience regarding instances at this school, yep! I have known people like you, teachers etc who for a sake of a quiet life see only what they want to see’ thought Brian

“well, perhaps you can give us your viewpoints on Severus, and the interactions he had with the other students in year” asked a very too polite Gerry (if you knew him, thought Brian to himself)

“Well he was a difficult child really, sorted into the wrong house Slytherin, it went downhill from there. I knew Severus from when he was a baby, difficult then as well, always trying something new, asking questions of his betters, not showing respect to his elders. So not like that group of boys (here a smile briefly flickered on Albus face) the marauders, always brightened up the place, teased Severus a bit you know, stupid little pranks, made everybody laugh, brightened the day…..but Severus always had to take it one step further, had to hex and bully them, he had no real friends except for Lilly Potter nee Evans, but they had a falling out after a little incidence between the marauders and Severus after their final OWLS…ow that was a laugh, gave the school, even the teachers a good chuckle, of course Severus just hid away, if only he had laughed and seen the funny side, told his parents numerous times that he needed to grow a back bone….that the teasing was all part of growing up, should learn to take it like a man, well that summer Thaddeus had to give tough love, he came home with the mark of the death eater, advised him to throw Severus out, let him fend for a few years, let him see that he had to pay for his mistakes, really if Severus had only been like James Potter, friendly, cheerful always up for a laugh, didn’t get the highest marks like Severus but that doesn’t matter when you have the personality to go far” Dumbledore reminisced

With barely controlled fury, that surprised Gerry, Brian asked “How can a child be accused of bullying, when it is four children onto one, where was the teachers. Why didn’t you stop the bullying by the boys, he life must have been hell!”

“Oh it wasn’t bullying, as Minerva said the marauders were only teasing playing with Severus, but Severus being the Slytherin he was, took it too far, hexed the poor boys. Bit of school Severus NEWT results, like he didn’t turn up for classes, well I as the rest of teachers always said that Lilly Potter was the brightest witch of her generation, and the NEWT results proved it, to go from all outstanding to Trolls” Dumbledore replied

“FORGIVE ME SIR! But didn’t any of you incompetent gi….” started Gerry

“Gerry mate! Calm down, can’t you see the teachers view point, Severus was trouble, a quiet solitary boy, being lightly teased by everyone, even the teachers thought it was funny that he was humiliated after his OWLS, after all after five years of schooling here you would think he would have been able to take the humiliation on the chin, you heard it was all a part of growing up” Brian quickly intervened helpfully. 

“Oh, so you understand detective Lane, you must have had children, difficult to find the right balance at times, as I have often said to Thaddeus, he couldn’t blame himself for the mess Severus got himself into, now James Potter was the son everybody wanted….”

“Well, thank you for that insightful viewpoint of Severus, we will of course be speaking to other members of staff and looking at the school records, TO GET A MORE BALANCE VIEW perhaps” Gerry countered. 'Really how thick could the old git be, if he didn’t get the undercurrent of disgust and anger in Brian’s last statement.' thought Gerry

“Yes well in that case you must speak to Minerva, she had all the records, as my deputy and head of house, she has all the disciplinary and other records filed away somewhere. She handles the most of the day to day aspects of the pupil’s discipline, she really is a big help, don’t know what I would do without her, I’m not that good at disciplining pupils really….”

“Perhaps DO YOUR BLOODY JOB FOR ONCE Albus” a voice shouted out, both detectives jumped, as a picture of a stern looking man began to speak “I have told you before, you were the wrong person for the job, but would old Diggory believe me, no! well Hogwarts has suffered enough from ministrations, hoped that muggle group of people stick a broomstick up your and the other teachers arses, perhaps get Hogwarts to the top of the school leader board” the man continued to grumble

“Ah, Headmaster Black you know, one of my predecessors, never has a good word to say really, and I have to put a silencing spell on him when we have a staff meeting on Minerva is in the office” Dumbledore countered.

“Look lads, if you want the truth, not the fairy tales these so called professors tell you mind! Speak to the squib caretaker, ghosts and house elves and the pictures of course, we’ll tell you the truth. The truth being that Hogwarts was the best school once a long time ago, but then it started to decline when that fool Diggory and now Albus here took charge. If I have said it once, I’ll say it again, you don’t have to be a good professor to be a good Head, couldn’t stand the little hooligans especially as a professor, but I knew how to keep order, the little brats hated me, but bulling and other nasty acts the little brats engaged in were kept to a minimum, and we had the best academic results for any school….” Portrait Black helpfully added to the conversation.

“Yes! WELL, there are slight differences in how we view being the guiding light for our future, I see myself as more of a grandfather, friend really assisting and helping the children to reach their full potential” Dumbledore supplied.

'Right! Another left wing liberal do gooder, they have done more damage than anybody else, as Brian said back in the office, blame the Vitim not the perturbator, bastards the lot of them.' Gerry thought to himself.

“Well then, thank you for your time, with your permission we’ll start asking the teachers that are still here from that time some questions, and start looking though the old school records of that time” Brian finished for the both of them.

Both detectives quickly got up from their seats and left the office, they had work to start to do.


	7. chapter 7

Brain had quickly seconded himself into a used office, and was going through all the past records of the students, during the time that Severus had been a student, ‘he was welcome to it thought’ Gerry. Brain the UCOS team had quickly found out had a natural desire to put order out of chaos, he loved to sort the minute detail, what he found astounded very often the team, it was true to say that for most the investigations the information that Brian found from a vast array of sources had helped if not solved the cases. ‘But to go through all that paperwork, even Brain must be shuddering at the thought’ Gerry reasoned to himself, well that left him to start talking to the school staff, that had been in attendance when Severus had been a pupil.

Gerry being a product of the state’s schooling system, he had attended the local secondary modern senior school like most of his working class peers, not the grammar school thank you very much. Only the very intelligent or workaholic had been able to attend the grammar school, and to be truthful for what career or job plans that him and his peers had, well there had been no need for fancy learning, yep as his old woman had once stated, Gerry had worked out by the end of the first day of his secondary education, that he was stuck in the school, till he was fifteen then he could leave a job or apprenticeship and start his working career, so working hard for qualifications wasn’t a priority for him or his mates. So he had like the rest the people he knew (villain’s included), had always thought that public(private) schools had to provide the best education, come on if they didn’t, what was the reason for spending all that money on it if it didn’t give you an advantage in your children’s life. Never did he think that a public school would condone bullying like this, this wasn’t just light teasing which is what Dumbledore insinuated, it wasn’t even bullying in his eyes, no this was the teachers or professors turning a blind eye to humiliation and torture of a kid, that even some of psychopath’s he had known wouldn’t have tolerated. No reasoned Gerry whatever had happened to Severus, every f……king teacher had played a part in it, there was no justification to allowing the bullying, he even blamed Severus parents for not taking more action, no matter what James and Brian had said in the pub, if every father had decided their children needed tough love after getting an underage tattoo, then the streets would be overrun with kids, hell he knew of at least half a dozen parents who had still supported their kids though drugs, drinks, thieving and even GBH, now some of those kids needed the tough love method that Dumbledore’s specialist (another left wing liberal, never done a hard day’s work in life Gerry reasoned to himself) advocated. No, what Severus had needed was parents that tried to support him, allowed him to have mistake’s, Gerry was even thinking that Severus would have been better having that psychopath Smack the Knife as a father, then his real father, at least old Smack would have taken out the boy’s competition then asked questions after. So he had the enviable task of speaking to the teachers that this school employed, oh joy of joy thought Gerry.

xxxxxxxxxx  
Albus Dumbledore, known by his peers as the wisest most loving grandfatherly wizard in the magical community, stood by his office window, normally it gave him pleasure to see the young children playing and going about their business. To be truthful he had been shocked when the Ofsted report had been published, they had recommended his removal and several other professors from the school, one inspector had commented that the boys on coral island could run the school better, he and other members of the ministry hadn’t understood the reference, it apparently came from a 1950 muggle book Lord of Flies, and wasn’t exactly complementary about his leadership of Hogwarts. 

 

He believed that most children, were really innocent and could be directed with the correct and proper guidance towards making the best decisions in life. Yes, children could occasionally be cruel towards each other, but there was he believed always reasons for the behaviour, it was difficult but the bullies’ had to be helped just as much as the bullied, in his experience even more so. But sometimes there just was no hope for a child, take the case of Severus Snape, oh the aurors would only see what they wanted, Severus had always been a difficult child, then he hit Hogwarts, and within a few days he started bullying the marauders’, the number of times Minerva had him in his office for disrespect towards teachers, and the number of times he had been caught hexing the marauders’, Minerva had never really taken to him, “he believes he warrants special treatment Albus, mark my words Severus will only cause heart ache and trouble in his life, better that he had never been born, feel sorry for Thaddeus and Eileen” well she had been sadly correct, he could see that after the incident in his fourth year, the child had been unrepentant about putting another child’s life at risk “But sir, I had a letter saying Betty Lovegood was going down the shack, I had to try to stop her” what lies the child had spouted, it had ended with him getting angry at the child, and he had to get the child make an unbreakable vow to keep Remus secret safe, so many lives and future were at stake, and then he informed the Severus that he owed James Potter a life debt, really it was only to show Severus what a good, moral person James was, how he had almost died to save Severus. And what had Severus done, turn away saying that he wished he had died in the shack, and that perhaps then the hell of his life would be over. Was it any surprise when Minerva had to give him a three-month detention later that term with Flitch for swearing at her, when she had tried to gently guide him and tell him where he had gone wrong. Thinking about that period, Dumbledore could only think of two people Severus voluntarily interacted with, they were Lilly Potter and Argus Flitch the squib caretaker. It was such a shame that Flitch’s demeanour towards the pupils had taken a nose dive when Severus disappeared. 

It had been strange when Argus had mumbled that he wasn’t surprised that Severus had failed all his NEWTS, but Minerva had assured him countless times that Severus was getting all the help he needed, extra classes and tutoring in the subjects the same as other children including Lilly, but if a child wasn’t going to accept the extra help and advice from his staff, then what could they do. Of course he had made mistakes, many if he was honest, but he knew that with the support and assistance of Minerva and other professors in the school, the children were given all the support they needed, no matter what the Ofsted inspectors and those two muggle aurors insinuated or believed. No his conscience was clear on the Severus issue, and the muggle aurors would find that out when looked at the school archive records and spoke to his staff that had been here during that time, he had even been waiting and willing to give the boy another chance to turn his life around, when he crawled back to the light side, after realising how evil the dark side of magic was, yes, yes, his conscience was clear, there was just some children such as Severus that could sadly never be helped.

Xxxxxxx

Couldn’t a school have normal bloody staircases, not moving ones, and he didn’t mean escalators no these staircases moved to other directions, he was beginning to really loath and hate the magical community, oh a few of them were okay and appeared nice and normal, but the rest wore their supposed superiority on their chests. Now he had his fill of other people, but he had never met any black, Indian, Muslim or (and this was hard to admit) toff that got up his throat as much as this lot did, just under a day in this bloody castle and he wanted to blow it to smithereens, he had thought that toffs were bad enough with their superior air and graces and attitudes, well the magical community were head and tails above them as far as he was concern. As far as he was concerned that poor caretaker Flitch had earned at least a MBE for putting up with the shits, and that was just the professors of the school, never mind the hooligans they called pupils, really the old reform school (or borstal as it was better known) wouldn’t be good enough for them. He had just stopped a group of the little gits from pranking the caretaker poor sod, when one of them had commented “Come on sir! It just that squib, everybody knows he deserves everything he gets after all, his detentions are the worse having to scrub floors without magic, really sir who does that in real life”

“WOULD YOU BELIEVE EVERYBODY outside this school, just to inform you lad, outside these walls most people are muggles and squibs, and an attitude like that, believe me will get you beaten up quicker than anything” Gerry had reasoned

“Oh! Come on, what can muggles do to us, with just a wave of our wand we can hex them, really they are no threat to us, in fact it is the other way I think you find” The psychopath in training commented. Gerry had not tried to disillusion them of that fact, after all what could a magical person do when their wand was snapped by a crowd of stupid muggles, pity that the NHS would have to pick up the bill afterwards. 

He nearly lost it, when one of the other pupils involved had tried to explain their reasoning further, by suggesting that the caretaker got what was coming to him, because as he put it “Flitch and his cat just waits and tries find us breaking the rules, he prowls around the school after lights out, just to catch us out of bounds, I mean rally sir who it’s unreasonable, if our head of house doesn’t mind, why should he have the authority set detentions and punishments when he finds us breaking the rules” No thought Borstal was too good for them, just ship all of the little sods to HMS Dartmoor, and save everybody involved a lot of trouble and the taxpayer money he reasoned.

The first interview with the professors hadn’t gone well at all, so he was hoping that he could beg, bribe Brian to do the interviews, and he’d sort through the school records, following any instructions that Brian left, anything was better than interviewing these pretentious gits.

Xxxxxxx

“You! Voluntarily sort through paperwork to make a connection, you are laughing Gerry, I still remember the time I saved your bacon though the expenses debacle, no way; Look Gerry, I’ve decided that there is just too much to sort here in the time we have left here, so I am having all the paperwork seemingly relevant or not sent to the office, so you can help me sort though it there.” Brian replied to Gerry’s question.

“What do you mean, not enough time Brian, I work with you remember, you’re the paperwork king, you can sort and make connections faster than that new super duper computer you’ve managed to snagged from the IT department for us, come on, what’s the real reason Brian?”

“Okay, the real reason for moving the paperwork down to the office, is that I just don’t trust that certain pieces of paperwork don’t get lost here. And in an investigation like this, where we are starting below zero in our understanding of the cultures and other aspects that are involved, I won’t know what piece of information is important, till I have seen and processed it, and secondarily once a piece of paper is lost, the information on it is lost for good, and me and Izzy can quickly scan this lot into the computer, making it easier for me to sort though and categorised” reasoned Brian “But I’ll help you with the interviews tomorrow, seeing as I’ll have nothing else to do after this lot is packed up by the house elves, good little workers and make a mean chocolate fudge raspberry cake and cup of tea”

Good thought Gerry, at least he didn’t have the pretentious gits on his own tomorrow, after all hitting one of them would mean him losing his job. And he needed the money, just think of the money he thought, not the fact that he strongly felt that the teachers had criminally let a kid down for being different and a loner.

Xxxxxxxx

The next morning, saw the two detectives up bright and early, too early for Gerry’s liking, how Esther; Brian’s wife managed to put up with him was still a mystery to him, well they only had enough time to complete three interviews today, before returning to the office. Oh they would be returning to carry on interviewing the teachers, when they had worked out what questions they wanted answers, well the three people on their list to be interview were Flitch the caretaker, Hagrid the grounds keeper and the Liberian Madame Prince they were hoping to interview them before they were helpfully coached what to remember by other sources in the school. 

The first interview with the poor caretaker Flitch, had been an eye opener, thought Gerry. He hadn’t taken long for flitch to tell them what he thought of the pupils and the teachers in the school.

Apparently, being a squib in the magical community was as low as you could get, it was like the apartaite system in America in the sixties or in south Africa more recently. Squibs were given the lowest jobs in society, they weren’t valued at all. Apparently in some magical families, potential squibs were still humanly disposed of to stop a stain on the family’s name and honour. 

Squibs had no rights, and prevalence was always expected to be given to wizards and other magicals. Now in a normal school half the size a caretaker would have help to keep the school systems running, work a normal week and get paid at least five weeks holiday a year, and overtime for any extra hours worked. But Flitch had no paid holidays a year, was expected to keep the castle up and running with the help of the house elves, and there was no limit to number of hours he was expected to work. In fact, he had repeatedly told that he was lucky to have a job at all, right thought Gerry, wait till reads the leaflet about unemployment benefit, and employment tribunals that Brain had thoughtfully left for Flitch to read.

Well they had found out that Severus according to Flitch recollection had been ‘bullied’ by the marauders’, and other pupils at the school. According to Flitch, the bullying had been horrendous, but he had really come to know and like Severus when he repeatedly ended up in detentions with him. Flitch had been worried about him, the young lad very apparently very often ended up coming to detention with unexplained bruising, and had been known to have to stay in the hospital wing for accidents that had led to broken bones.

Flitch reencountered the only time that Severus had mentioned his parents, namely his father. Apparently Severus had been grounded over the Yuletide holidays, due to him getting an acceptable score on his flying lessons, his father had been disappointed in Severus poor and lazy attitude even though the lad had got outstanding’s on his other subjects. No flitch surmised Severus had learnt his lesson well, only outstanding’s were the bare minimum that his parents would except.

Flitch also mentioned about an incident in his fourth year, that had led to professor McGonagall giving Severus a three-month detention with him, just before his end of year exams, it seemed to Flitch that the woman had wanted Severus to fail, well the incident had led to Severus becoming more withdrawn apparently, and any respect he had for authority figures had been totally quashed by Dumbledore’s actions.

Flitch then reencountered the infamous incident with Severus and the marauders at the end of the OWL exams in his fifth year. Flitch had been horrified at what had happened, and with the house elves and Hagrid had ensured that for his remaining schooling Severus always had a safe place to come to in their domains. Flitch also remembered that when Severus returned for his sixth and seventh year, his attitude had changed, it was like recollected Flitch another young man had returned in place of Severus, gone was the young man who wanted to improve the magical world, who loved to make his parents proud, who as a potions prodigy had a life mapped up before him after Hogwarts, no Severus returned from the summer holidays in his sixth year, as if he was going through the motions of completing his schooling, he bunked off classes, never did the course work, was even kicked out of the Charms NEWTS with the professor Flitwick and another subject, he apparently hardly ever attended the main hall for meals, taking his meals either with him, Hagrid or the house elves, only attending the bare minimum of meals in the great hall, so his non presence the rest of time wasn’t noticed by the professors.

Then Flitch reencountered the day before his last NEWT exam, funnily enough potions, Severus had come and seen Flitch for the last time, Flitch’s blood still turned cold when recalled what Severus had said, he had given Flitch a photograph of himself, a poster of a muggle music group called the Rolling Stones, and said thank Merlin that he was finished with the magical world, he was going to end this torment and get rid of the life debt he apparently owed James Potter one of the marauders’. And then the next thing that Flitch had found out, was that Severus had failed his NEWTS, and disappeared and was then believed dead. 

Flitch had also helpfully explained the school house system to them, and their major traits, they were:  
Hufflepuff; known for unswerving loyalty and hard work, read would stab their mother in the back if brought them an advantage, and generally it was assumed the thickest of the pupils ended up there

Ravensclaw; known for their intellectual pursuits and followers of the rules, read couldn’t care less what happens as long as it doesn’t involve them, and to scared to break the rules or go against peer pressure

Slytherin; known as the house of ambitious and cunning, the only house whose traits were spot on, they would openly tell you they would sell their first born to advance themselves in society, but on the plus side they valued hard work and application.

Gryffindor; known for their chivalry and bravery, read brazen bullies, allowed to get away with literal murder, and felt that the world should kiss their feet and provide them with a living.

Xxxxxxxx

Well that had taken most of the morning thought Gerry, thank god they had started early, they were now trying to find the library to interview the Liberian Madame Prince, before lunch then hoped to be able to interview Hagrid this afternoon.

They turned the corridor and literally run into the headmaster

“Oh! Here you are aurors, I have been looking for you this morning, let me introduce you to our defence against the dark arts professor, Mr Lupin” said Albus “I thought you would be interested in interviewing him as soon as possible about the small incident concerning Severus”

“why? Headmaster, what information can he have for us, he wasn’t the professor teaching here at the time of the incident with Severus” countered Brian, in a much too calm and friendly voice

“Well, I thought my boy, you might like to interview one of Severus peers that knew him really well, you know to get a balanced view about the boy, I mean Flitch really isn’t very objected when it comes to Severus and his time at Hogwarts”

“We’ve found Mr Flitch to be very helpful and objective in his recollection of Severus school days’ headmaster, and we thought that Severus wasn’t well liked amongst his peers, we can assure you that we will interview his peers when we think it is time to do so, today we have list of people to interview, we’ll be back to complete the subsequent interviews sir” Brian responded

Gerry suddenly recollected something that Flitch had said “Headmaster, this wouldn’t by any chance be one of the boys who were part of the group called the marauders’”

“Why! Yes, it is, Remus here was such a good hardworking pupil, stayed out of serious trouble in school, that I thought he would be able to give you an objective viewpoint on Severus” Headmaster smiled grandfatherly at them

“I don’t think we have time to interview Mr Lupin at present, perhaps another time, when we gathered more information regarding Severus and his disappearance” Brain replied though gritted teeth, with that Gerry and Brain both left Albus and Remus to fine the library, according the map it was on this floor somewhere.

Brain hadn’t told the headmaster that after this morning interview with Flitch, that he personally thought the only place UCOS would want to interview Mr Lupin, would be at the UCOS interview rooms under caution with his solicitor present. Objective viewpoint, my arse thought Brian, did the headmaster think him and Gerry had been born yesterday.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The librarians interview

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dumbledore is not being manipulative in this story, he is being manipulated by other people. Dumbledore is seeing and believing in what he wants, not necessary the truth. enjoy

The two detectives quickly found the library, it was off one the corridors from the main hall, the rooms their self were large, airy and had an air of comfort about them, there were the tables, desks and chairs for single and group studying, but all so comfortable chairs and couches that people to relax into, with the row to row bookcases, it was easy to see how unsuspecting pupils could be ambushed in the rooms. They introduced themselves to Madame Prince, a no nonsense woman, definitely a spinster thought Gerry, and good looking, Gerry quickly introduced themselves, and just as they were about to start the interview, when Madame (call me Irma detective Standing) Prince excused herself for a moment, next they her loud whispering and three pupils were escorted out of the library, after the Liberian had given them a detention with Flitch for that Saturday afternoon.

“Sorry, about that gentlemen, just had to sort out a small problem” Irma concluded

“Oh! What was the problem, Madame Prince? “questioned Gerry slightly smiling 

“Oh! No need for formalities, call me Irma” “Well then Irma, please return the favour, and use our given names as well” concluded Gerry, giving Brian a look, that said ‘follow my lead, and I’ll tell you later’ Brain slightly nodded his head in agreement to Gerry, after speaking to the librarian they were building up a disturbing picture of what life really was like for certain pupils and even some professors at Hogwarts. And as Brian said afterwards ‘Lord of flies’ could have been a shoe horn for Hogwarts, the only difference being that Carol Island didn’t have adult authority figures who turned a blind eye to going on of the pupils.

Madame Prince turned out to be an articulate woman, who had never wanted to bond. For muggle or normal women this would be seen a life choice, but in the magical society, witches were expected to bond as soon as leaving Hogwarts, ow they could have a job outside the home, but the main authority figure in the wizarding families the head wizard of the family.

So when Irma had decided that she was not going to bond with the dick head that her parents had picked for her (really Irma, with your looks and temperament you really don’t have many options dear), she had to take the only well-paying position available, the librarian at Hogwarts.

Well she had established for them, that the women professors at the school, were either like her spinsters that could teach a subject, to her knowledge she confided to them Minerva was the only witch that had a masters in transfiguration, but even she had married and was a widow. The gossip about her status, was that she had started teaching when her son in law who she despised had become head of the family. The other female professors at the school, although very knowledgeable in their subjects, apparently didn’t have to have a masters in the subject they taught, apparently the Headmaster of the school had the discretion to employ who felt was the best professor no matter what their qualifications, Hagrid the groundskeeper was a case in point, a very nice half giant, but had never finished his education, but Dumbledore had employed him as the care of magical creatures professor recently, as his extensive knowledge of the subject outstripped every other candidate for the position, it was a pity Irma informed them, that accidents and injuries in that subject had increased remarkable, there were more injuries and accidents in that subject then in potions apparently, which for most magical education establishments was the most dangerous subject taught.

Gerry had quickly managed to get her back on the subject of Severus, he had been a favourite of hers, and had according to her been publish in a few of the potions journals, here Irma had gone and got them copies of the journals, but nobody outside her seemed interested in his achievements, the potions professor teaching the subject Master Slughorn, had openly derided Severus to other professors and pupils.

She confirmed that Severus had been bullied, in fact that was why she had the wards around the library, to alert her if pupils were not quietly studying, she had one day come across the marauders lightly teasing Severus as the headmaster would call it. Only hexing someone four to one, whilst calling them Snivellous and ruining his schoolbooks was not what she called lightly teasing, yes she answered Brain’s question, she had gone straight to the headmaster with the five boys, never again was she that stupid she added. The headmaster had listened to Professor McGonagall reasoning and ruled that Severus’ had asked for trouble again, and that it was prank that had gone awry again’ so in that instance he had given the marauders a single detention with McGonagall, and a week’s detention with Flitch for being the instigator of it, well from that moment on, she had started to deal with issues that occurred in her library herself thank you very much.

She also confirmed part of Flitches account of Severus schooling after his OWLS, “when he came back to Hogwarts it was like he was a different man, like he had a personality transplant; he never came to the library during those two years”, and she knew for a fact that he played truant and neglected his coursework, she had overheard Fillus commenting that he had kicked Severus out of his NEWT course because of it. Yes, she had last seen Severus the day before his last NEWT exam, he had thanked her for all she had done for him at Hogwarts, giving her a poster of a famous muggle artist called the ‘Scream or Ser Schrei der Natur to give it is proper title and a photograph of himself. Severus had also hinted that he was leaving wizarding society for good, after getting rid of a life debt that he owed to James Potter. She had apparently asked after his parents, as they were well known as respected in the magical community, Severus only response to her had been that he had not seen them for two years, and as far as he knew they would be happy if he was dead and buried.

The two detectives left the library after thanking the Liberian, they had copies with them of the potion journals that Severus had contributed to and a copy of the photograph that Severus had given to Irma, the photograph seemed to be a muggle photo, the young man in it looked gaunt and resigned, as if waiting for something to happen. Gerry also had a provisional date with the witch as well, Brian had just rolled his eyes when Gerry had managed to get the date from the witch, really Gerry never changed. Now they just had to find and interview Hagrid the Groundskeeper and professor of taking care of magical creatures.

Xxxxxxx  
Albus was becoming worried about the two muggle aurors and the people they were interviewing, in his humble opinion, he believed that they were being too concerned about the view point of individuals who had liked Severus, if they continue to do this he reasoned to himself, then they would never see the real picture of the boy.

The boy had been trouble, always causing trouble, throwing in the fasces of his betters their short comings. No Severus was not like most other pupils, take the marauders for example, James and his friends were always helpful and friendly to the professors and prefects. Always brightening the place up with their pranks and harmless teasing, they never questioned their professors about the subjects they were being taught, never tried to show off supplying to much advanced information I n their assignments. Yes, Minerva was right, Severus had been trouble then and was trouble now. 

He had only tried to help the detectives get a balance view of Severus, when he introduced them to Remus, was trying to show them the other side of the coin as the muggles said. He now had a headache, from the shouting that Minerva had done, when complaining about all the school records being taken by the aurors, for their research, that could the aurors want with past records going back a hundred years.


	9. chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry remus bashing, and about Bane contribution, but had something to make Hagrid recount severus time at Hogwarts

Hagrid sighed when he spotted the two muggles walking down to his hut from the castle, he had been asked by the Albus to answer all the questions that the two aurors would have. Then Albus had gently reminded him that Tobias parents were still grieving for his brother, and that perhaps it would be better for them if Hagrid’s memory wasn’t very good, what the necessary of rehashing the past; Hagrid reliving his memories of the past would accidently embellish and imagine events and situations that either had not happened or had been taken out of the context, looking at him Albus had reminded him that he had been source of unfounded rumours that had managed to get him expelled from not only from Hogwarts, but the wizarding world, it was only Albus fighting his corner that had allowed him to stay on as the groundsman, rising over the years to groundskeeper and now Professor of care of the magical creatures. 

Hagrid always had the respect for Albus and listened to his advice, there had been very few times that Albus had steered him wrong, so he had made up his mind to conveniently forget the events surrounding Severus disappearance, he had always found the marauders friendly and helpful lads, boisterous and playing planks on others, but generally harmless. 

But Bane accompanied by Firenze and Ronan; three of the centaurs that lived in the forbidden forest had sought him out this morning, Bane had said that last night he had a message from lady magic herself that he had to give to Hagrid. Bane had said that lady magic had a quest for Hagrid. Hagrid had to tell the truth concerning events from a silver jubilee ago, that he was one of a few protectors that Hogwarts had left now; and for Hogwarts and its magic to heal the truth must be known, people must be made accountable for their actions of the past. So Hagrid now knew that he tell the muggle aurors the truth as he saw it, if lady magic commanded it of him, then he had to obey her orders, but he knew in his heart that it would cause untold pain and hardship to the Snape family and the Potters.

It hadn’t been difficult for Gerry and Brain to find Hagrid after lunch, and truthfully they didn’t have much hope for Hagrid giving them any useful information regarding the events of quarter century ago. Flitch and Madame Prince had both informed them that Hagrid, whilst being a decent honest individual, would have divided loyalties, on the one hand he had liked and had helped Severus over his school career, but also he had a soft spot for the marauders especially James and this included his wife Lilly, he also had loyalty and respect towards the Headmaster, and would most probably conveniently forget some of the more pertinent details of the situation that the detectives wanted to interview him about. But as Gerry had said, and Brain agreed with; as old coppers and detectives, they knew sometimes what people refused to answer told as much or more than if they had answered their questions honestly.

Hagrid greeted them as they reached his hut, he invited the two detectives in for refreshments, whilst they talked. Gerry graciously said that Hagrid’s homemade cakes and sweets, were unique and unforgettable, this had made Hagrid’s day, but to Brian in private he had said he would never try them again. After a few minutes making small talk and fussing over his dog, they started the interview.

Hagrid to their surprise seemed to answered honestly about Severus and the marauders time at Hogwarts when they were pupils, it was obvious that Hagrid had adored the marauders, he saw the James and Sirius as the sons he never had. It was also painfully obvious to the detectives that he was biased to Gryffindor house, to the detriment of the other school houses especially Slytherin house. Yes! Hagrid remember the supposed teasing of Severus by the marauders and most of his peers, the treatment of the marauders to Severus had been cruel and humiliating, but he had felt that this had given tacit permission for his other peers to bully the lad as well. Severus was taunted, not only by pupils of other houses, but by his housemates, oh Slughorn the Slytherin head of house at that time not only knew of the bullying but silently condoned the actions of Severus housemates towards him. Hagrid surprisingly had complained to the Albus, but his claims were dismissed as exaggerated, Hagrid had seen that Severus had over his school years become even more distant and reclusive from his peers.

Hagrid recounted his anger when he found out the marauders had produced a map that tracked every person in the castle, he had expressed his concerns to Albus and Minerva that he thought the marauders were using the map and James family’s inviable cloak to track and ambush Severus. But his concerns had been dismissed by Albus, in fact Albus and the other professors were proud of the marauders for producing the map, Hagrid had only felt disgust and felt powerless at the situation.

Yes! Hagrid remembered the event of Severus fifth year, and how the marauders humiliated Severus in front of most of the school. Hagrid, knew that the school population had found the humiliation funny, and they had been relieved when Severus had banished himself to his dormitories for the rest of the term, as Minerva and several other professors commented “It was nice, not to see that miserable, nasty little git at during mealtimes”

Hagrid had apparently agreed with Flitch during the summer holidays, that when Severus returned to Hogwarts, they would give him a safe place to go to if needed, they both knew that the school population may not respect them, but they were scared of them. But when Severus returned to Hogwarts after the summer holidays, Severus had changed, his attitude had turned 360 degrees Hagrid volunteered, Severus never interacted with his peers more than he had to, he bunked off classes and never completed coursework. Yes, he had most of his meals with Flitch and Hagrid, with the only very few appearances in the main hall for meals, in fact Hagrid wasn’t sure, but he always thought that Severus only attended the main feasts in the hall, he didn’t even think Severus stayed in the house dormitories during his last two years at Hogwarts. Hagrid also remembered the last time he saw Severus, the lad was smiling, he seemed happy and relieved, like a great weight had finally been lifted from his shoulders, he gave Hagrid a muggle book on exotic animals by a David Attenborough a well-known muggle author, and a photograph of himself, Severus thanked Hagrid for all he had done for him, saying that Flitch, Irma and himself had been his real family, and that he wanted to say goodbye, not to worry about him, he was going to pastures new, was going to leave his waste of life here, the next time that he heard about Severus, it was that he had failed his NEWTs, and had disappeared and was presumed dead, Hagrid had never forgiven himself for not helping Severus when he had last seen him, it was obvious to Hagrid when they knew Severus had disappeared that he had committed suicide. 

Hagrid also volunteered that out of all the marauders, the one he had disliked was the Lupin boy, oh! All the professors had seen the side that the Lupin lad wanted them to see, but Hagrid always thought that Lupin had been the mastermind behind some of the most horrendous pranks and bullying of the marauders, but had made sure that he never was caught red handed as it were. Lupin had always been careful to be viewed as unwilling comrade of the pranking and bullying. Hagrid had always been shocked and surprised that the Pettigrew lad had become a death eater, he had always expected Lupin to be the one to turn from the light side, and it wasn’t because Lupin was a werewolf, no to Hagrid, Lupin character had always been to disquieting or like the character out of that muggle book he had read, yes uriah heep, Lupin was always too humble, too nice, too afraid of people, like Lupin had been the person being bullied and humiliated even though to Hagrid’s knowledge Lupin had never been bullied, because he was one of the marauders, it had felt very wrong to Hagrid. 

Xxxxxxxx

Brian and Gerry left Hogwarts that evening, after thanking the headmaster for his hospitality of the last few days. They had managed to collect the archived school records that UCOS needed, and the individuals that they had interviewed had been very forthcoming, but they were sure that they would be returning to ask more questions.

Gerry and Brain had never felt happier to be on the plane back to London, Heathrow airport, it would be interesting to see what the others on the team had found out, and what Brian could glean from the records from the school. One thing for sure Brian thought, Hagrid may have been right, Severus may have committed suicide driven to it by his school peers and at the least negligence at by the professors of the school, and he hoped that if this was the case he wasn’t the one who had to accompany either Sandra or Strickland to inform the parents.

Xxxxxxxx

Albus, was relieved that the two muggle aurors had left Hogwarts, oh he would have been happier if the aurors had spoken to other individuals from that time other than the three they had, he knew that Remus, Minerva and the other professors that taught at the time, would have given a more reputable account of the time. It wasn’t that the flitch, Irma or even Hagrid were would be deliberately dishonest in their accounts of what had transpired during that time, but they had only seen the façade that Severus wanted them to see, they had not seen the untrustworthy individual that he was, how he had tried to get his peers especially the marauders into trouble. But as he had told Minerva and the other professors, the records they UCOS had seconded would show them what had truly happened during the time, no they had nothing to worry about, they would all be exonerated when the invvestigati0on was completed.

But at least he had gently guided Hagrid in how to answer the aurors questions, Hagrid the gentle, and loyal individual had realised why it was necessary to be cautious with accounting the events from that time. He had always been glad that Hagrid had taken his advice in important matters, it made it easier for him to guide Hagrid in doing and saying the correct thing for all concerned.

Albus knew that the muggle government department of education was looking for a reason to either close Hogwarts or take control of her, and that would be detrimental to the pupils that attended here, no the muggle department of education did not need any more erroneous reasons, they had quite enough with that obviously falsified muggle report, he just couldn’t believe the nerve of them, listing bullying and the uncontrollable behaviour of some of the pupils as one of the main reasons why the school had rated inadequate on that muggle Ofsted report, as he pointed out to them children would be children at the end of the day.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Severus versions of events! I wrote this listening to the living years by mike and mechanics.

Severus looked out of his office window, he had just signed off on the officer’s expenses for the last month, and for six months in a row the expenses and out of hours’ payments would be signed off in time by him, work rotas would also have been checked and published for his departments, instead of his officers complaining that they didn’t know what their work schedule was barely a month in advance, they now knew six months in advance, and it was all due to his new PA Sarah.   
His new PA Sarah, was he admitted brilliant, she had been seconded from one of the nearby police forces. When the Chief commissioner had informed he that he was having Sarah as his personal PA, and about her secondment, he had thought only to himself, that of course the force she came from was sad to see her go, she had to have problems, normally that the reason people were seconded after all he thought.

Well he was wrong he admitted, it had taken her less than a week to organise him, and his office. Meetings were scheduled on time, minutes of said minutes promptly on his desk, she knew and organised most of the managers of the departments he was in control of, and he had just managed to get her to become his permanent PA, he wasn’t the best well organised bloke he knew, he hated routine paperwork, but he reasoned it came with the job. Meetings that had been scheduled before Sarah were hit or miss if they started on time, he had known about the rumours before Sarah, if you had a meeting with him, you had a least 30 minutes to get there after the suppose starting time, because the meeting would be at least that late getting started, it wasn’t his fault he tried to reason with the commissioner, when invariably his time management was raised in his appraisals, all the other meetings he chaired, somehow managed to over run, and then that led to his schedule running late, paperwork being delayed. He laughed when he heard that the reason for Robert Strickland, snagging the last meeting spot of the day “At least I know I’ve the rest of the day to get through my work, and what else could I be doing at midnight except sleeping”, well that had changed since Sarah, as his PA she was the one who composed the agenda for the meetings, and the one who ensured that the meetings ran on time, there had been a few times when participants had wanted to waffle or introduce irrelevant issues into the meeting, just hearing her clear her throat or cough by his side, had managed to get him quickly back on track. 

He was still laughing, when he found one day Robert in his office, Sarah was upsetting the UCOS detectives, well only one really Brain Lane, she had started to try to help the department, after all they didn’t have a dedicated clerical assistant, and she had a bit of free time, so she would help out, which had led to her and Brain having a stand up row, well Severus had just said let them fight out amongst themselves, well that had been a week ago, and she was now their unofficial clerical assistant, apparently her and Brain had clicked and between both of them had started to organise the team to be more efficient. 

No he was standing here, looking out of the window thinking back to the conversation with the commissioner, the commissioner had suggested that perhaps it was time Severus got back in touch with his family, they would soon know that he was alive after all, UCOS were if nothing like his PA, rockvilliers, they clamped on to a case and didn’t let go until they had solved it, that was the reason for their success rate after all. He thanked his gods that he never lied, and that his superiors all had known of his previous family circumstances, and the reasons for his estrangement from them.

Yes, Gerry Standing would be surprised to find out, that Severus came from a prominent wizarding family, he hadn’t been born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but a platinum one. He had house elves at his beck and call, money had been no problem, he had been intelligent child, inquisitive, a prodigy they called him. But that had never been enough for his parents, especially his father.

Oh, he remembered standing by his father’s study door, almost dancing with happiness when he had found out something new, when a theory had clicked, but the trouble was, that even with all his privileges, he could never be the son and heir his family and especially his father needed or wanted. He still remembered when he had met the great and wonderful Albus Dumbledore for the first time, he had been so excited, he was five nearly six, he had bombarded him with questions, argued his point of view; then he looked at his parent’s face, and had seen the shock on them, and then he knew he supposed that Albus and his side kick Minerva had made up their mind about him, he was trouble, and would be a disappointment to his father, and ruin the family name. 

From that time on, comparisons had been made between him and another wizarding child, James Potter. Potter was perfect, had the mannerisms, the attitude to go far, he could still hear his father berating him, especially when he got to Hogwarts, “Why couldn’t he be like James Potter, stop the whining and get on with it like James, grow a backbone and take the teasing on the chin, Be a man and a wizard for once, Be a member of the quidditch team, what do you mean you have a fear of heights, real wizards ride broomsticks for merlin’s sake, and the best or worst I wish that James had been my son, Severus, he is a real man not a whining wimp like you” oh how it had been drummed in his head he wasn’t good enough, bright enough ,had never got into the right house Gryffindor, the house of the brave and true, no he had been sorted in to Slytherin, the house of ambitious and cunning, only the dark wizards came from there, what was that saying, oh there had never been a dark wizard from any other house other than Slytherin, that and the fact that he never respected his elders and betters, had sealed his academic future. 

That bitch McGonagall, had made his life hell, had given tacit agreement to the bullying of him, oh it was worth the three months’ detention in his fourth year, for telling her exactly what he thought of Hogwarts, her and wizarding society, at least he had peace and quiet for that three months. But it was when Dumbledore had berated him, made him make that unbreakable vow, and had ensured that as far as he was concerned Severus could be sacrificed for the sake of others, his life meant less than others, and then to find out he owed his nemesis James Potter a life debt bond, which meant that James had control over his life from that moment on. He couldn’t even unacknowledged the bond, the bond was automatically made by lady magic herself, and couldn’t be broken, if it was the perpetrator lost their magic instantly, leading to death of the wizard. Well when he had been kicked out the family that summer holiday, he knew that he had to find a way to break the bond, and there was only one way a bond like that couldn’t affect the person, and that was if they were a squib or muggle, they had no magic to lose. 

Well that summer and the other holidays, he got use to the streets, begging and living on handouts from the salvation army and other organisations, he only had to wait till he was eighteen then he could join the army, so he had returned to Hogwarts for the last two years, not to learn anything, but to research a way for him to lose his magic, and to have a roof over his head for most of the year. Well his research had paid off, he had found a potion that was called the unofficial fourth unforgivable, once consumed it led to the stripping of a wizards magic, the wizard would become at the least a squib, at the worst a muggle. The problem there was only a ten percent success rate of it working, most wizards who had consumed the potion had died, but Severus had been desperate and this was the only way he break the life debt bond. So for six months before the NEWTS, he brewed the complicated potion. Then he had gone to Gringotts and taken out enough from his trust fund to see that he had a roof over his head till he was eighteen, and could join the Army.

Before he consumed the potion, in the hovel he had as a home at that time; he took one last trip to the Town family manor, to hide away in plain sight his school trunk, as he knew that he would not have any use for the processions it contained. There he had seen his parents and his twin siblings, his mother had hidden herself away, like she always did, like most well brought witches, she left the decisions to the head of the family, in this case his father. His father had looked at him with the contempt and loathing he felt towards his eldest son, so Severus had hurt him the only way he knew, he had told him that he had joined Voldemort’s organisation, and that he wouldn’t be happy till he became Voldemort’s Himmler, and smashed the world and society that his parents and light friends were so happy to be a part of, of course it was lies, he had no intention of joining any magical organisation, light or dark. No his path was to become a muggle and leave the lot of them behind to rot, to his mind, when his father had listened and taken the advice of Dumbledore, he had made his decision, and they all of them had to live with it.

Well he had consumed the potion, lived to tell the tale, and spent six months making a new identity for himself, first thing he had done was change his name by deed poll, then a get a job. He had gone from being in two years one of the privileged in society, to one of the poorest individuals. He had found it hard, but never once had he missed his magic, in fact in only had contempt for the magical society now, what he had now he had worked hard for, it was his achievements, his failures.

The trouble he surmised was that Wizarding society was run like the catholic Vatican in the middle agers before the reformation, you didn’t question your place in the society, you never questioned period. Your elders and by default betters, were not to questioned, cherished theories were taught and followed as if they had been Merlin’s version of 10 commandments, that could never be altered or challenged. This meant that for Wizarding society hey were final and absolute and could never be questioned or replaced, no there had been no real advancement in wizarding society for a long time.

Well you imagine his wonderment when he entered muggle society, oh they were non magical, or squibs like him, but children were encouraged to question, muggles expected and wanted to advance society. Take his children, three of his own and a step daughter, they didn’t think it strange that they had the right to question people and ideas. Oh it wasn’t all sunbeams and roses, but as Severus was concerned it was head over heels better than the wizarding society he had left. No he thought, he wouldn’t get in contact with his family, his parents especially father would never want to see him again especially now he was a squib, that Severus knew would only bring great dishonour on his family, his father had always managed subtlety and most often in his face let it be known how much he hated and despised him, and there was no way his father accept and acknowledge a squib for his eldest son, no as Gerry would say, let sleeping dogs lie for once; after all according to the reports that he read from the investigation, his parents had three other children now, they didn’t or wouldn’t want him, he even knew that they didn’t even miss him, no just let sleeping dogs lie, there had been too much time and water under the bridge.

But that didn’t solve the problem of integrating the wizarding aurors with the normal police, it had first been thought that because most of wizarding society was either situated in London, Hogsmede or spread out, that the two police forces that it would be easier for them to integrate with were the railway police or the Met, well the railway police had managed to dodge that bullet nicely, so the Met was stuck with them. No deputy commissioner wanted to have them under their control, they were trouble, hell, put the wizarding aurors on the street of London, and policing would never recover. Wizards as he knew, to his cost, thought themselves superior to everybody else, well put them in most situations and the fur would fly, the riots of the eighties would seem to be a picnic in comparison. Well thankfully at least he dodge the bullet of having the wizarding aurors under his control, just thinking of having James Potter his nemeses in the same building, let alone working for him was too much to comprehend for him.


	11. Chapter 11

The team was at Brain’s having one of Esther’s superb meals, every so often she would host these team building exercises, the real reason for them was to ensure that Brain was taking the medication for his mental health disorders, like most people with mental health problems, their medication made it better, but then the person would stop taking the medication the mental health problems would spiral out of control again, well joining them tonight was Smiths new PA Sarah and her spouse. They made a nice couple, both of them complimented each other, well conversation had turned to ongoing investigation and the process or lack of it they had made.

Brain, Izzy and Sarah when she could get the time where scanning the school records in to the computer, most of it Brain and Izzy admitted would be useless, but there would be that one small detail or information that could potentially open the investigation wide.

Sarah’s spouse had listened horrified, when Gerry had reencountered the interviews with the three supporting staff members, “What on earth had the headmaster or teachers been thinking, when they condoned the bullying of children like Severus” yes he had said, most people; himself included had either in the past bullied or been the bully. it didn’t make it right, and in hindsight had made him feel terrible, it was different before the nineties he reasoned, bullying was seen as a part of life. Nasty but necessary, children people thought had to learn to cope with bullying, so they could navigate though the adult workplace, thank god he added that attitudes were slowly changing, bullying was rightly condoned, schools and other institutions were trying to stop the bullying, it was difficult, took a lot of time for attitudes to change, but they were slowly. But even in his secondary school in the eighties, even they wouldn’t have condoned the level of bullying of Severus, it hadn’t been the best school by all means, but he started to share Gerry’s viewpoint, if this is what Public schools allowed, then any children they had were staying put in the State school system, thank you.”

Esther’s reaction shocked them the most, what she reasoned was Severus mother doing, letting her husband and the boy’s father treat Severus like he did, why hadn’t the mother got the balls to stand up to her bullying husband and protect the child, there had been many things Brain had been a failure at (thankfully she didn’t list them), but he never treated the kids like Severus father had, if he had then he would have been out the door with only the clothes on his back. 

Sarah had joined the discussion at this point, and agreed with Gerry about the supposed tough love that Thaddeus had felt Severus needed, with that justification her spouse’s elder sister would have been chucked out of the home when she turned sixteen and had come home with that butterfly tattoo, oh the old man, as her spouses father was known as, had literally had a coronary when he hit the roof. But he had calmed down eventually, and as along as her sister kept her multiple tattoos she had covered now in front of the parents, well then nothing else was mentioned about them.

Well the discussion had gone from wanting to string Severus parents and the headmaster up, to what they did now to further the investigation, they now knew that Severus had been bullied, at home and at school, Brian still thought the answer was in the school and ministry records. Jack wanted to speak to the house elves of both Hogwarts and Snape manor, very often the servants were the fountain of knowledge and gossip of their employers, he also wanted to interview not only the parents again, but their remaining children, to see if they were anything they inadvertently knew.

Gerry agreed that he would try to find out what the local rank and file police office and aurors really thought about auror Potter, and if there was any history in his past career, he was especially interested about the incident concerning this auror moody, Sandra also delegated him to accompany her to interview the rest of the marauders and Severus peer’s interviews, leaving Jack and Brain to interview the professors and headmaster of Hogwarts. 

“What about the order of phoenix members and remaining death eater countered Sarah’s spouse, they may have information, if someone from the one of the organisations had taken him out, surely they would know something about it”

“It would also give you information on the two structures surrounding the two organisations, and establish for once and all if Severus had joined these so called death eaters” Esther added helpfully.

Izzy surmised that he was beginning to think they may find Severus in the normal world, he may have Izzy reasoned left the magical community and cut his losses, and decided to live in normal society. But Jack argued, that most Wizards and witches he had met would never have been able to integrate themselves in their society, you are he reasoned talking about a seventeen/eighteen-year-old man, living in a society and culture that was totally alien to them, add to that Severus would have had to live without his magic, and that would be like one of them being able to hear, but not being able to use the sense, not impossible, but difficult especially for aa naïve eighteen-year-old.  
As Jack helpfully summed up, now they were getting more information, they were beginning to see what information they needed to close the case, and find Severus body.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> slow moving chapter, Tobias sister will have very relevant information regarding Severus disappearance, and a reason for spectacular fall of the rails

“you’re sure? Tobias, I mean resigning from Hogwarts and joining the family business, yes it’s a dream I have always had, one of my sons learning and then following me in the running of the business, but I thought you said that although you loved developing and improving potions, your heart wasn’t in joining the family firm, that you were content to stay as the potions master at Hogwarts, what changed Tobias?” Thaddeus asked his son

Tobias sighed, how could answer his father honestly, he had always admired the man, he knew that he made serious mistakes with his brother Severus, which had led to Severus disappearance in his seventeenth year, and he knew that the disappearance had eaten at the man in front of him. 

That his father Thaddeus really only wanted Severus to be the one working with him, that had been the main reason why he turned his father down about joining him in the family business after he gained his potions masters. He couldn’t reason stand to see his father wishing for him to be Severus, he had always felt not second best exactly, but that he never could live up to the idealised picture his parents had made up in their mind of Severus, his parents had never said anything to him or his other siblings, had always been more than supportive, but being second in his parents, especially his father’s eyes had hurt him if he was honest. So being a potion master at Hogwarts had seemed the safe option when he started to make his life in the magical world, but now things had become complicated, and he was running home like a small child really.

Tobias had always thought his brother Severus had been selfish, his parents had never spoken about him to them, all him and his siblings knew (and this from sources such as Dumbledore) was that his brother at fifteen had joined the death eaters and was mostly probably dead. Dumbledore had when he asked informed him that Severus had not been a popular child at the school, in fact he had one day been harshly told that Severus had been a nasty little bully, he liked to pick on the more popular children. And then his supposedly redeeming quality, his high intelligence had been proven to be lie, just looking at his NEWTS results Dumbledore had suggested that this had proved beyond doubt that Severus had cheated and copied his way to the outstanding results on his OWLS, no child he reasoned could go from ten outstanding’s to all Trolls on his NEWTs. So Tobias had buried his unanswered questions regarding Severus, then the two societies had started to merge, and he found out from a source that there was a unit called UCOS in the muggle aurors, who open unsolved cases, and wouldn’t stop investigating until they had all the answers they needed. Tobias had found himself that day, sitting in the interview room with the nice man, telling him about Severus and his disappearance, and that had led to this. Tobias really had wanted to find Severus alive and tell him how his disappearance had effected the family, how selfish he was, he wanted to ask him if he was glad that their youngest sister had spectacularly gone off the rails because of him, he wanted to hurt Severus, just as much as Severus had hurt them all.

But now, things had changed, and he had a feeling that UCOS opening and investigating Severus disappearance wasn’t being well received by certain people that he had always respected and looked up to, he was getting the feeling that a lot more had gone on to make Severus disappear then what he had originally been led to believed.

Then his twin had contacted him, their sister, the youngest of the children had once again gone spectacularly of the rails. Their parents, especially their father was beside themselves. No this time she was in serious trouble with the muggle aurors, and was looking at what muggles called serious prison time. It had given the valid reason to come home to look after and support their parents, but it still felt like he had come home with his tail between his legs. 

His wife had made it acutely clear that she thought he was being stupid and selfish again by putting his family above theirs. The argument had been horrendous, and truthfully he wondered if they would ever be able to make up, he had then realised that being bonded and in love with the daughter of the most respected wizard in society, had meant that he and their small family, had always had to play second fiddle to her family, and her family had always been centred around Dumbledore needs and wants.

He was also fed up with the withering looks and nasty comments been hurled his way, by other professors, number one being Minerva, he had been labelled as a traitor, a git like his brother etc. It was only one day after he had fielded yet again another nasty tirade from Minerva, that Flitch the caretaker who had overheard the conversation, had told him “Perhaps you now get the gist of what drove your brother away from here, believe me that is only a minor version of what your brother was told by her, and he was only a student”, if that Tobias had reasoned was only a minor tirade, then he beginning to wonder what the hell the professors, especially her had told Severus. 

Yes, he was glad to be coming home, everything wasn’t rosy, but at least they could support each other.


	13. Chapter 13

“Gerry mate, do you remember that series from the eighties ‘It’s not the nine o’clock news?” Brain asked not looking up from his laptop.  
“Yeah mate! Great little comedy series, took the micky out of a lot of people, especially the Met! why do you ask?” Gerry replied

“Well me, Sarah and Izzy have been looking at the disciplinary report cards for the pupils Hogwarts, especially Severus and the group called the marauders, and we have found something strange! and it reminds me of a sketch from the series, and I was just trying to explain it to Izzy here” Brain said.

“Alright Brian enlighten us with your superior intellect” joked Sandra, as she entered the office after coming from a meeting with Strickland.

“Well there was this sketch, Rolland Atkinson was the Police Chief, and he had this copper in the office and was carpeting him about his bluntly obvious racist attitude towards ethnic minorities”

“Oh! Yeah I remember that one, gave us a good laugh, ended up with the chief berating the copper, and transferring him to the special ops squad! So what about it?” answered Gerry.

Now everybody had gathered round Brains desk, waiting for the nebulous link to appear “Well, I started last night to look and organise the disciplinary records, Esther had gone to bed, had a headache and I couldn’t sleep again” Brain volunteered to the group, ‘Esther definitely deserves a medal, or its love for putting up with Brain’ thought Jack, shuddering from remembering the time Esther had left Brian, and Brian had camped at his house, Jack swore that his kitchen cupboards had never been the same afterwards.

“Well, Severus was disciplined for and I quote, making a loud noise in the corridor – one detention, being disrespectful towards a prefect (telling them that he couldn’t go outside as it was raining – 1 detention), answering back in class to a professor, when he asked for an explanation of a topic – 1 detention, and that was only the first weeks attendance at the school, and the reasons for him being disciplined seemed to be in the same vein for most of his school career, oh I forgot, there was the punishments for bullying and hexing the marauders, usually four to one in their favour, he gets detentions and letters home, they seem to get a slap on their wrist or exonerated. Well it seemed to have really blown up the in the spring of his forth year, when he got a three-month detention for verbally abusing a professor and the deputy headmistress, apparently Dumbledore also had disciplined him earlier that month for putting another boy into danger, a Remus Lupin, apparently it happened one night” Brian supplied the information helpfully

“Your making that up Brain” Gerry countered,” I mean even the teachers in my school were not that vindictive, and believe me they could be....”

“No! honest Gerry, Severus disciplinary record, reads like that speal Atkinson did in that sketch, if these records were correct, then Severus was subjected to the professors being vindictive as well as the bullying” Brain replied

“Alright! We believe you Brian, honest, is there any pattern to Severus disciplinary history, you know, times of the month, subjects, teachers etc.?” asked Sandra

“Yes! Here it is, a professor McGonagall, seems to be the one who handled most of Severus disciplinary record, until and up till that three-month detention for verbally abusing a professor, and yes! guess what guys?” asked Jack

“I can guess but you are going to tell us regardless” replied Gerry

“Yep; Severus got a three-month detention for verbal abusing professor McGonagall, Severus disciplinary record apart from that seems to be clean, except for a few instances of very minor rule breaking, but…”

“We guess it Jack, Severus really got punished harshly for those minor rule breaking by the other professors, due to his supposedly horrendous disciplinary record” countered Gerry

“That’s not all” Sandra added to the conversation, “according to Severus medical records, which somehow Brain obtained, Severus was very often in the infirmary, suffering from minor cuts and injuries up to and including concussion and broken bones, and they all seem to tally with him getting punishments from bullying this group of boys called the marauders”

“But how did she get away with it, come on victimising one boy, somebody would have noticed surely” Gerry questioned

“They did Gerry! Think back to what that Black bloke in the painting said” The rest of the team just shrugged their shoulders, they had no idea what Brain was talking about, but that was hardly unusual they found “If you want the truth, not the half lies that the staff will tell you, then look in the school records, and ask the portraits and house elves”

“Oh Right! Of course” Gerry suddenly looked as if a eureka moment had hit him “McGonagall was and is the deputy headmistress, and Dumbledore admitted that he left the day to day running of the school to the deputy head, he didn’t see the need to waste time and effort into monitoring the school records, pupil punishments etc., he saw himself as more of a statesman or grandfather figure overseeing the bigger picture, not being dogged down in the day to day running of the school, so….”

“If the deputy headmistress was being vindictive towards Severus, and silently condoning the bullying of the boy by other pupils, nobody would have noticed.” Sandra supplied

“Or cared enough to intervene, except three minor staff members who were over ruled every time they tried to bring the bullying and victimising of Severus to the headmaster” Jack added disgustedly to the conversation.

“So! Where were his parents in all of this mess, didn’t they twig something was seriously wrong?” asked Izzy, “I mean, my old woman, would have given me a good hiding, but then she’d be up the school catching the teachers hell!”

“They, believed what they were told,” Sandra said “That he was a nasty little bully, and a trouble maker, what did he’s father tell us Jack”

“That they had never realised what hell and torment he had lived though, and that if the father could go back in time, then everything would be different” Jack answered her

“Yeah, it’s too late, when the shit hits the fan, and you’ve kicked your only son out of your life to teach him tough love when you suddenly realised that you may have allowed him to be literally bullied and tormented though out his schooling, still say that Smack the Knife would have been better parents than his real ones” Gerry added

“Out of interest, what did they get Smack for in the end? “Jack asked “It wasn’t for GBH or murder was it by chance?”

“No, it was for income tax fraud, they never found the bodies of his victims, there have always been rumours that the pigs that he had on the farm he owned always were well looked after” Brain recollected for them.

Xxxxxxxxx

It wasn’t Gerry sitting on the Hogwarts express train traveling to Hogsmede, it was Deputy Assistant Commissioner Robert Strickland, Sarah had somehow got his boss Deputy Commissioner Smith, to sign off on him accompanying Sandra, to carry out the interviews with the rest of the Hogwarts Staff. 

The official reason for Robert accompanying Sandra, was that his presence would show how seriously the Met was taking the investigation, and that the senior members of the Hogwarts Staff would feel more comfortable if interviewed by two current senior police officers. 

The real reason, was that it was hoped Strickland could keep himself and Sandra under control, Sarah had quickly realised to put team up anybody else from the team to complete the interviews with Sandra, would have led to blood shed of the Professors, oh they had wands and could hex, but the team had their fists and years of experience with real vicious cons, and Izzy may not had much dealings with vicious con of the sixties and seventies, but he had grown up in the hood, so knew how to look after himself. No Sarah had soon realised anybody else with Sandra to complete the interviews and it would have been a bloodbath with no hope for the professors coming out alive, if there was one thing normal coppers and cons agreed on, children were off the table, you didn’t hurt children, so the torture that Severus had gone though, well let’s say there would have been support for the actions of the lads.

His old man was laughing from his grave today, Robert thought, eight hours riding behind and old Great western class 590 engine, repainted the colour of maroon. Well at least that would have upset his old man, Robert had grown up with a stream railway enthusiast, holidays had been planned around visiting preserved railways, railway museums, visiting (and Robert shuddered at the memory even today) old railway lines just to walk them, his holidays with his parents and consisted of camping in one part of the country, and camper trailer and tents on one of the caravan and camping sites, home from home his old man called it, purgatory he and his siblings viewed it, and visiting the above attractions. It was only when he and his siblings had left home and started to go on their own vacations, that his parents had decided to start travelling abroad, and as far as he knew they had never been on a train preserved or not since then.

The only good thing to come out of his father obsession, was the money they got when they sold his model railway collection, his parents were the salt of the earth, but his father had put him off railways and trains for life thank you. 

Well his father had come from a Great Western Railway (GWR for short) family, for generations up to his grandfather, his family had some contact with the GWR company, or God’s Wonderful railway as his father affectionately called it, what his mother renamed the GWR letters for was still unprintable, his parents had agreed early on in their long marriage ( more than four live sentences married to that man, I’d have got less for killing him) to disagree about the GWR, in normal British families the topics you kept away from especially at the table were politics, religion, the state of NHS and the next doors neighbours children, in his parents’ house it was the GWR railway, punctuality and his brother Bernie's life style.

The reason that Robert had no difficulty working for Severus, and his punctuality problems, was that his father could have shown Severus a trick or two, his mother had ended up carrying the book War and Peace and the other classics around with her, ‘well she had reasoned, it made sense to waste her time reading that drivel whilst waiting for their father again’ If you needed to get to an event promptly at nine in the morning, they told his father the appointment was for five in the morning, they invariably got there half an hour late, now his mother had to be events and appointments at least 30 minutes early, fashionably late to her, was arriving on time. It was even rumoured that it was his father that kept his mother and the congregation waiting at the alter on their wedding day, he still wasn't sure if his mother had set it up, but his old man must have been the only person he knew off to arrive half an late for his own funeral.

Well back to riding on steam trains, nasty, dirty slow things in Roberts opinion, and he had spent many a day riding on them with his father and siblings, with his mother seconded in the local café reading the latest mills and boon ‘no Robert, this is time to spend just with your brothers, sisters and dad, go enjoy yourself’ yeah right had thought Robert at the time, what part of I can’t stand trains and railways do you not get mother, and what part of the sentence ‘the only good sibling is a fatally injured one’ do you not understand, most of his fighting technique had come from the trying to kill and avoid being killed by siblings fighting school of life. Well at least they won’t have the annoying on board train announcer, there is after all only one stop in the journey the destination, no! he couldn’t believe it, there came that voice again. 

Nine hours later, and the carriage carrying Robert and Sandra pulled up to Hogwarts entrance, standing there was Dumbledore and his teaching staff, ‘Great, what have so badly done to upset Smiths PA, to deserve the torture of two weeks interviewing the rejects of the hippie sixties’ thought Robert.

Two hours later, Sandra was wishing that she had brought Jack or even Gerry with her, years of working with Robert, had left her knowing his moods and tells, and one more of “my boy” from Dumbledore in his patronising voice, and she would have bet her life savings in Ladbrokes on Robert throwing him from the tower, it was going to be a very long, long two weeks thought Sandra.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pullman and Strickland first morning in Hogwarts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, I do not feel that the bullying at Hogwarts would have diminished over time, only gotton worse. It takes hard work to stop bullying - enjoy

It wasn’t often that Robert Strickland ran, to get rid of stress, but today was one of those days. He was completing his second lap around the black lake, when Sandra joined him, both of them knew the importance of keeping fit, and Robert would try to run at least three times a week if not more. But he hardly ever had to run to blow off steam, and it was only the first morning at Hogwarts.

What had that Ofsted Inspector he contacted, who had been on the inspecting team of Hogwarts said about the pupils “Little f….king, psychopaths, look I have never supported corporal punishment, for that lot of psychopaths, I’d bring back the birch, on word of advice if you are going to that hell hole, take a couple of Tasers, a truncheon, pepper spray, and if you can get away with it a shot gun riffle, you need those items to survive the psychopaths” 

Well, Robert had been taken aback at that verdict, and thought perhaps the guy was a conservative, who had right view points of the raising of children, the kids couldn’t be that bad surely. Oh! How wrong could he be, thank the lord as he mother would have said, that he had taken the inspectors advice and pack the items he recommended (except for the shot gun obviously).

He had difficulty sleeping last night, and like most night shift workers the world over, had given up on sleeping, and decided to explore the schools, in the early hours of the morning. Now according to the school rules all the children except the prefects, had to be in their dormitories by ten at the latest, with the prefects on patrol duty allowed a curview of midnight.

Well he had found numerous cases of children out of the dormitories after curview, and a group of children, tormenting and bullying another pupil, when he had intervened the psychopaths had decided as a ‘muggle’ he had to be taught a lesson, well at least the bullied child had managed to get away, and he had snapped the other seven pupils ‘wand’, and had informed them that they would be seeing him with the headmaster this morning.  
“To buy as new wands!” one of the little darlings suggested  
“No!” he replied, “To ensure that you are adequately punished, for this level of bullying, exclusion is the normal punishment” Robert had helpful replied

“Come on! It’s not bullying if it’s a snake, they deserve what they get, and McGonagall our head off house will bat for us, she always does, she hates the snakes more than we do” answered another psychopath, well he had to agree with the Ofsted inspector, it was Coral island from that book, but boys running the society had the tacit agreement and support of the professors.

After he had run a few more laps around the lake, both his and Sandra started walking back to the castle

“Okay! Sandra, now fill me in on properly, on what the hell UCOS has found out about this educational establishment, before I see that sixties reject again Dumbledore this morning” and with that Sandra updated Robert about the subtext of the investigation, and what they thought had been happening to Severus at the school, and Robert informed her about last night.

Xxxxxxx

Robert closed his eyes, this was going to get messy very quickly, it was only breakfast and Sandra was wound up tighter than a drum. She was a good hardworking copper, who had risen through the ranks because of dedication, can do attitude, leadership skills, she like most of the women in the police and ethnic groups, worked as hard or harder than others to reach the top of the profession, and she had the added deficit of her father’s career to contends with as well.

She was the reason that in his and Severus opinion that UCOS was the success story it was, she had started the team, as a public relations act for the public, when he reputation had been almost in tatters, and she had taken a team of four very different individuals, pulled three of them into the twentieth first century, and had earned her stellar reputation back.

So to hear the sexist comments coming snidely from the professors at the staff table was a shock to the system, where were these women professors (and it was the women) ideas coming from, he didn’t think even the Victorian women had held such out darted viewpoints. When he had enough, and then tried to come to her defence, the comments about that ‘they could see, the only reason she had the position she had, was because basically she had slept her way into the position’, the headmaster at that time had taken one look at the situation, and asked for his and Sandra’s company in his office to sort out the little misunderstanding about last night.  
‘Well this will be interesting thought Strickland”

Xxxxxxx

It was lunchtime at the Hogwarts, and there was a new respect for the two inspectors from the professors and pupils. Apparently, what had happened to the seven boys that morning, all from Gryffindor house had shocked the school.

Robert and Sandra had been waiting with the headmaster in his office for the seven miscreants, when they were showed in by the deputy headmistress, a lone boy with his head of house was there as well, all seven boys gave their accounts, so did Robert as well, and placed the snapped wands on the headmaster’s desk. 

The deputy headmistress then spoke up on the boy’s behalf, it was a laugh, didn’t mean anything by it, everybody broke curview, Dumbledore had then delivered the punishment, a week’s detention to the eight boys, all was forgiven, the wands would be replaced, a kindly lecture on not intentionally hurting others was given, the boys were just going through the door when Robert started, and Sandra had been impressed.

Robert had countered, that he didn’t agree with the punishment of the boys, oh the lone bullied boy should have the weeks detention, but the other seven would be excluded from school for the rest of the term, their wands wouldn’t be replaced by him, their parents would be informed of the real reasons by him for their punishment, and it would be going on the seven boys permanent record, Robert had then told the boys that if had his way they would have been expelled for the little stunt they pulled.

The headmaster looked shocked that his wise counsel had been questioned and over ruled, the deputy headmistress with pinched lips had demanded what authority did he as a muggle auror have for giving the boys the unfair punishment he had, and Robert had replied “If the punishment I have outlined is not followed through to the letter, and believe me I will be checking it has Madame, then I will be arresting the children for committing GBH against another pupil, and they will facing more than exclusion, they will be facing prison time, you and the pupils here may not respect me, but I am determined that you will fear me” and the boy’s parents had been called in to take them home. Oh yes thought Sandra it was going to be a very two long weeks, especially when most of the people in the portraits had started clapping Roberts stance.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> sorry its been along time, thanks to sevlandexplorer and portrayal of James father, and what he might do when found out about James behaviour at Hogwarts. Also the life debt Is from an idea of numerous reviewers on the story, stating how could their be a life debt between James and Severus, and it fits in with the story, sorry forgot that Sevs father name was thaddeus- enjoy

Albus Dumbledore was shocked, couldn’t they see that the children had been having fun with the other student, light hazing between children, whilst unfortunate happened. Normally he found that having a quiet word with the pupils put and kept them on the right track, in fact Minerva hadn’t stopped moaning about the situation being taken out of her hands, normally she was the one as deputy head to oversee matters of pupil’s discipline at Hogwarts.

Albus was only called in for serious infractions of discipline, like in the case of Severus Snape, oh the boy had always been trouble, and Minerva had been right all those years ago, Severus had been spoilt as a child, and thought that his actions at Hogwarts would go unpunished, she had as always dealt with Severus and his bullying and general nasty attitude towards the Professors at Hogwarts. It had of course all come to head with the incident in Severus fifth year, when he had tried to get Lupin expelled for being a werewolf. Oh of course Severus had said in defence of this actions, that he had received a letter claiming that a third year Slytherin was in danger from going to the shrieking shack, of course it had all been as Minerva had said lies. He had tried to explain to Severus why he had been wrong to go to the shrieking shack that night, of course it was right that Severus had been punished harshly for putting Lupin’s life in danger, and the vow he had made Severus make using the fear of his father as catalyst had to be done, to save Lupin. Also the small mater of the lie he had to tell Severus about owing James Potter a life debt, for saving Severus from the werewolf, it was just to show Severus how grateful he should be. Of course there had been no life debt owed to James Potter, Lady magic herself did not work in that way, only Lady Magic herself could decide if a life debt between people was there, and there had to be a stringent set of circumstances for the life debt to form, in fact there had been no cases of a proper life debt ever being formed. After all nobody magical apparently felt that selfless to offer their life for a virtual hated enemy, the nearest examples were from the muggle society, where combatants in one of their wars would selflessly help the enemy. No he had to be cruel to be kind as the muggles said to Severus the next day after the shrieking shack incident.

The incident in Severus fifth year, with Severus having to go through a little hazing by the marauders, couldn’t Severus just have seen that it was a bit of light relief. But that Severus all over, he hated to be the laughing stock or belittled. Perhaps it had been cruel for the professors to laugh at Severus at the time, and continue with the rest of his school mates the teasing and to be fair even he wouldn’t have wanted to be exposed as Severus had been, but as Minerva and even Slughorn (his head of house at the time) had commented, it brought the little bullying git back to earth. No Albus thought his conscience ws clear over Severus, he had done nothing wrong at all, the boy had needed discipline, especially after he took the dark mark, as he explained at the time to Tobias and Eileen, Severus had needed tough love, of course Albus would with this parents helped and supported Severus when he had returned back to the fold, but the boy had never been herd of after taking his last Newts that year, it was obviously clear that severus was long dead. Yes, Albus thought to himself, this muggle auror unit would soon finish their investigations and clear him and the school of any wrong doing, and then perhaps he could mend the broken bridges between the Charles Potter, Severus Parents and himself.

It had been unfortunate Albus thought that James Potter father and widow, Charles Potter had sided with Thaddeus Snape, over the treatment of Severus by not only the marauders, but also the Teaching staff of Hogwarts at that time, in fact relations had broken down so much, that both fathers had sent the rest of their children to Beaxburns magical academy in France. James had been disinherited from the Potters family, Charles still supported James and his family, and James would always be financially wealthy, after all Charles had left him and his children a large trust fund, overseen by the Goblins, but the Lordship was to go to his younger brother, who like the Severus boy was too serious and wanted change for the sake of it. In fact, Thaddeus had made sure that nearly every influential family had stopped ending their children to Hogwarts, after he had lost Severus, it seemed to Albus that Thaddeus had tried to destroy Hogwarts in his understandable grief in Severus death. After all, as muggle mental healers often said, that people grieving had to blame someone or and organisation for a person death, even as in this case the blame for Severus death clearly couldn’t be laid at his or Hogwarts doors. 

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Thaddeus Snape sat on his eldest sons bed and looked at the only photograph of a adult Severus he thought was in existence, Severus in the muggle photograph and he looked happy as he had been when he had been just a young child, before the meeting with Albus and his peers, it had been in the card that Severus sent that Yuletide. He very often retired to this room, and spoke to Severus, or not the real Severus his son who was he knew long dead now. Thaddeus had for years after the muggle card that Yuletide hoped, wished for Severus to contact them. But not one word, written or otherwise had been sent, so Thaddeus hope had slowly died. So instead he had continued to visit his sons room, and tell Severus about life outside, how sorry about the past he was. How Thaddeus wished he had been a different father to Severus, the one that Tobias and his siblings had. He worried and told Severus about his youngest daughter, how he couldn’t discipline her like he should, not since Severus had left their lives. Every time he had to discipline his remaining children, he thought back to losing Severus and couldn’t take the risk of losing them. Well his youngest daughter had got herself into real trouble this time, oh for once it wasn’t as his Tobias and his sister had thought to do with her committing crimes (she had done that plenty of times, but the thought of prison time had seemed to curb her behaviour thank Merlin), no it was the fact that she was seriously ill with a condition called diabetic ketoacidosis, she had nearly died from it, but the muggle hospital that were trying to treat her had saved her life. Thaddeus shuddered every time he visited her on the ward, her attitude and behaviour towards the hospital staff made him cringe, Eileen had stopped visiting her at the hospital until she started behaving appropriately, well that would happen when Hades froze over thought Thaddeus. So Eileen and himself had become parents again, they had been custody by the muggle child services to look after his daughter’s son, their grandson. His son Tobias had moved back in to the house with his children to help with running the families potion business, and Tobias twin sister was helping to look after her niece, and to Thaddeus consternation, it had been decided by the muggle children services that his daughter would never gain custody of their grandson again, unless she changed her behaviour dramatically, and the hospital specialists had given their daughter only another ten years to live if she didn’t change her behaviour and start following their advice and treatment they wanted her to follow. So Thaddeus did, what he did every evening, just talk to Severus in the photograph, whishing that he could speak to Severus for real.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a disjointed sorry, yes Dumbledore and mcgonnegal bashing

Robert just looked at Sandra in disbelief, the more they interviewed the teachers that had been on the staff when Severus had attended Hogwarts, the more he hated them. It was quite disconcerting to find out the teaching staff hadn’t changed that much since Severus time at the school. 

Most of the teachers (Robert would never give them the title of professor) had hated Severus, not the dislike a teacher may have for a disruptive pupil, but a deep unjustified hatred, based upon the opinions of the deputy head mistress and the Headmaster. They had stopped the interviews after Robert had asked the Brian to confirm for them the incident that apparent happened between the marauders and Severus at the end of the fourth year. Now they knew it had to be big, for severus to apparently be threatened with expulsion, if anything this afternoons confrontation in the headmaster’s office was to go by. Robert had almost resigned himself to the fact that the teaching Staff must have caught severus almost blowing up the school, which as Robert surmised he wouldn’t have blamed the kid for. 

Sandra phone rung and she took the call then turned to Robert and repeated what Brian had told found out “Robert! What ever happened, there is no details listed in their disciplinary records for Severus, just that Dumbledore punished Severus with two-week detention with the caretaker Flitch, and confined him to the Slytherin dormitories and his lessons, to find out what happened, we have to ask him, but whatever it was it must have been big”

Suddenly Roberts phoned pinged with the information that here was a text waiting for him to acknowledge and reads, Robert quickly read the text turned to Sandra and asked her “Well Sandra, are you ready to interview the old git and Remus Lupin under caution then?”   
“Caution? What the hell Robert, we don’t do preliminary interviews under caution, unless were sure that the person being interviewed is part of the crime that has been committed” Sandra countered  
“Because I don’t want the bastard evading the questions, whatever happened at this learning establishment at that time, the bastard has kept well and truly hidden, and I want to know whether what Gerry and Brian have uncovered is the truth, so the interviews will be under caution”

“I call for reinforcements then? Sir” Sandra asked, surprise in her voice  
“If you would please Sandra! This is going to get messy, if I am not mistaken”  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

An hour later the whole school was sat down for supper in the Great Hall, when Robert and Sandra walked into the hall accompanied by four uniformed police officers, the hall fell silent as the UCOS members with the backup marched up to the great table, and Sandra and the rest of hall inhabitants that night heard Albus Dumbledore the greatest wizard ever was arrested under caution, with Professor Remus Lupin by Deputy Assistant Commissioner Strickland for the aiding and begetting in the manslaughter of Severus Snape. Albus turned pale, flustered and tried to talk his way out of the trouble he was apparently in, but the fact the non-magical police officers had never been brought up to hold Albus in awe, didn’t sway them, as it had done the magical police before, Albus with Remus was duly arrested, their wands taken from them, and special suppressors police cuffs placed on them, and then they were escorted to the waiting police cars at the front of the school.   
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Albus felt the shame that countless people have over the years, at being arrested in front of family, friends and influential colleagues, and Albus knew that his being arrested and escorted to the police station would make the Daily Prophet, with bloody pictures supplied by the helpful snakes. He knew that they would not miss an opportunity to shame him how, no matter how wrongful the arrest was, well he thought when this was over he would ensure that Auror James Potter ensured that these officers and the UCOS unit was summarily dismissed and disbanded, he was after all one of the most important and influential men in the country if not the world.

Sandra was smiling inside, oh as police officers they could have ensured any questioning they conducted was completed at Hogwarts, in the privacy of the Headmasters office, but like all good coppers it seemed Robert had wanted Albus to be publicly humiliated, whatever he had found out must have really upset Robert.  
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Deputy commissioner Severus Smith was in the middle of trying to finish reading the monthly reports that his departmental heads provided, when he absently thought that he wanted a drink of water, and suddenly a glass of water appeared on his desk. He looked around the office, no there was nobody there, and then suddenly he felt it, the feeling he hadn’t felt for over twenty-five years, the feeling that had left him when he taken the potion to make him a muggle. Severus Smith nee Snape felt his magical core again, but it wasn’t possible, no way could the potion be countered, once taken the magic was lost to the magical person, they became a muggle, so what in Merlin’s name had happened, and then he knew that he would have to seek out his father. Because his father could ask that old bastard Dumbledore what in the hades had happened to him, so it seemed the commissioner, his wife and her family would get their way, he would have to contact his parents, and that was a meeting he had never wanted to have in this lifetime. 

So Severus after talking to the commissioner, took an emergency leave of absence and went to home to tell his wife what had happened that afternoon to him.  
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Gerry had never been one for getting blindly drunk, oh he liked the odd drink at times, but his normal vice was gambling but that wouldn’t cut it for Gerry after he interviewed Retired Auror Allister Moody. Gerry had as he said contacted police friends of Auror James Potter, and had struck gold with Alistair Moody (or Moody for short), in fact he had unofficially invited Moody to become part of their team, he was to introduce him to the boys tomorrow, and then they would work on Sandra. 

A mutual acquaintance had introduce the two police officers to each other, and they had hit it off and like all old police officers they had found that things to them had moved on, but not improved in their eyes.

Gerry had brought the first round of drinks, and then asked the question that he wanted answered from Moody, why did you hit your superior James Potter, now Gerry knew it had to be big, because as he could testify from his own experience you didn’t hit a superior without realising that you were ending your police career, no matter had justified it was, it was instant dismissal.

Moody sighed deeply and started his explanation to Gerry “I found out what he and his mates the marauders had done at Hogwarts, namely to that Snape lad. Lord Black confirmed to me what I had found out one day, how ashamed he was. I then confronted Auror Potter, and he admitted what he had done, the little gits should have been expelled at least, but the facility covered it up, I’ll never be able to prove it, but the marauders and Dumbledore by the actions, pushed the Severus lad to suicide, except I will never be able to prove it” 

“Yeah Moody! We know about the humiliation at the end of Severus firth year after his OWLS exams, but the facility didn’t cover that up; the bastards joined in with the humiliation, and that’s no reason to commit suicide” Gerry interrupted

“NO GERRY!” Moody replied in a loud whisper “There was an incident in their fourth year, Severus was forced to face a fully turned Were Wolf on the school grounds. Apparently as a prank, Remus Lupin the were wolf decided that it would teach Severus a lesson if he was to face him in his modified safe room in the shrieking shack, he sent Severus a bogus letter and the fool fell for it. Severus was nearly bitten by Lupin, James managed to push him out of the way of the werewolf. Now the stupid thing about this was that the one marauder who tried to stop Severus from going to this shrieking Shack was Lord Black, and he’s the only marauder as well as Severus who got punished by fucking Dumbledore. 

Well to make the situation ten times worse for the Severus lad, not only did he face the transformed werewolf, but Dumbledore made him make an unbreakable vow not to divulge the truth about Lupin, and then told the kid that lady magic had made an life debt between him and James, which means pretty much in magical terms that Severus and his descendants would always be in James debt until the life debt was paid, and that little arsehole James Potter with Lupin decided to hold the life debt over severus head at all times, if his life had been hell before the incident, it was nothing compared to after”  
“Moody, not that I am disbelieving you, but how did you know about the incident if Dumbledore effectively managed to silence Severus?” Gerry answered

“Headmaster Blacks portrait in Lords Black town manor, Grimwald place. I was in a foul mood that day, really bitching to anyone what a fucking arsehole by superior Potter was, when Headmaster black portrait told me about the incident. Look you muggles don’t understand magic do you, well let me explain about portraits, when a magical person dies their magic will go too their nearest relatives, bonded or God children, and in allow their painted portraits to become what you think is alive, but although only one portrait can receive the magic to make them come alive if you will, they can move to other magical picture’s and other portraits of themselves in different locations that they lived in, and best of all the portrait’s cannot be held under ant oaths or vows, except to advise and tell the truth as they see it, which makes them wonderful witnesses, as people including Dumbledore forget they are intelligent or even there” Moody replied

“So how do you fulfil or break a life debt or vow?” Gerry asked, really interested now  
“You can’t lad, a life debt is formed by lady magic herself as we say, and that and unbreakable vow if broken would mean that he wizard or witch would almost die when Lady magic stripped them of their magic if either is broken or unacknowledged. But lad, that fucking arsehole Dumbledore should lose his magic for what he did to Severus, and the only way he got away with what he did was that he knew the lad’s parents were estranged from him, because if they weren’t they would have killed the arsehole and gotten away with it.” Moody commented, finally taking a swig of his beer   
“Why? What did the headmaster get away with?” 

“Lying lad, lying” Moody informed Gerry “Dumbledore fucking knows, like all magical adults that children e.g. anybody who hasn’t reached their majority of seventeen, and very often now eighteen years of age cannot be made to make any vows on their magic, and that the life debt bond that he had Severus believing he owed, he never had. Like, the nearest example I can think of in the muggle world is a serviceman in war saving his enemy’s life over his own with no thought of profit or gain in any way; and I don’t believe that was the case with the incident with the werewolf do you? So I think Severus killed himself at the end of his seventh year at Hogwarts, when he thought the life debt would become active, I don’t think he could live with the idea that his life wasn’t his own, do you?” Moody asked, and with that Gerry had finished his drink and excused himself for a minute and phoned Brian and informed of what he had learnt, then when back and got blindly drunk. Brain had then when he finished taking Gerry’s call, had texted Strickland the information Gerry had got, after all Strickland had wanted to know what the incident had been about. Because like Gerry, Moody and now himself he felt that Severus had most probably committed suicide over the incident, and the blame they felt could be placed at the marauders and Dumbledore’s door.

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Dumbledore was officially a muggle; he could no longer do magic as he had lost his magical core. It was as if he never had a magical core, the top healer from St Mungo’s said to Madame Pomphrey in the Hogwarts infirmary. 

After his arrest Dumbledore with Lupin had been taken to the nearest police station, where after what the police called processing, Dumbledore had his first interview with the detectives, and it was when he was returned with his wand back to Hogwarts for the evening, where he was informed by the UCOS detectives that they would interview him down at the station soon, oh he still had a magical suppressing tag on, that would only allow him to do the most basic and simple of spells. But when he had tried to do them, he hadn’t been able to, it was then in the infirmary that Poppy had made her discovery.

The ministry had tried to blame the non-magical police and the suppressing magic equipment the police and other security forces used to stop magical people from fleeing custody, but after testing the other magical individuals in that police stations cells and finding they had no ill effects. The magical ministry had to very reluctantly agreed it wasn’t the police fault especially after Minerva McGonagall had been brought in to the infirmary with the same symptoms and loss of magical core.

But nobody had a reason why Albus and Minerva had lost their magic core, in fact an unspeakable when hearing about their predicament at the impromptu ministry meeting to discuss their situation, stated it seemed that they had been given against their will the potion that countered as the fourth unforgivable. But who, where and how had they been poisoned by the potion.

But to Albus consternation he was still expected to help the muggle police with their enquiries, and he had been housed with Minerva in a Salvation Army hostel under police bail whilst the police continued their enquiries. The magical ministry had wasted no time in throwing him and Minerva out of Hogwarts as they were now classed as a muggle. And he found out how much he was disliked by magical society, when wizards, their families and magical organisations shut their doors in his face, for the first time in his life he was alone with no power or influence to help him. And Dumbledore vowed that when he found out who had poisoned him, he would kill them by muggle means for taking his life away from him.

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Later that evening Sandra and Robert were having a drink at a local pub, and discussing the case and who they still had to interview at the school. The list consisted of the house elves, the portraits in the headmaster’s office, and the rest of the teaching facility, and then the conversation returned to the interviews that would still be needed to be carried out with Remus Lupin and Dumbledore, when they had gathered more information. 

When Sandra commented to Robert it was a pity he wasn’t a wizard, especially after he sarcastically asked lady magic to judge Albus Dumbledore and his actions regarding Severus and the shrieking shack incident, and the apparent light hazing that he had endured at Hogwarts that had culminated with the fifth year OWL incident. Robert agreed, but both officers discussed the burning question of the day, who had poisoned Albus Dumbledore and Minerva McGonagall with that unforgivable potion, because realistically it had to be one of their colleagues.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For potion chaos hope you like this chapter, oh thanks again to DebsTheSlytherinSnapeFan and her story fixing past mkistakes for the alternative magical school idea and Dumbledore bashing again - enjoy

Severus looked around the table in his mother in laws kitchen come dining room, most of her extended family had been asked attend to discuss the development with Severus magic ability, he sighed to himself his brother-in-law’s grandmother named Nanny Jean by the family in fond fear. So after everybody had settled with refreshments, Severus informed them about his returned of his magic, Nanny Jean asked how he had lost his magic in the first place, and Severus found he couldn’t look her in the eye, when he explained about taking the potion, and about the unbreakable vow and life bond debt, after that family didn’t stop asking questions until he told them all about his Hogwarts education and the bullying he had suffered. 

Nanny Jean sighed and just called him a stupid boy, and said that if he had told any adult even his parents, bar the imbeciles they called teachers at Hogwarts, then he would have been told that Albus Dumbledore had lied to him, there was never a life debt to the Potter boy, and lady magic would never except the unbreakable vow or any vow for that matter a child made. 

She also informed him and the family that she had a theory about his return of magic, and that she better tutor him in controlling and using his returned magical ability, before they visited his parents next week to confirm her theory. 

Nanny Jean apparently had been a witch from an influential family, she admitted herself her magical core was slightly above a squibs, but enough for her to attend that dump Hogwarts. When she had graduated from Hogwarts, her father had arranged for her to bond with an influential rich wizard. She had refused and when her father had made her choose between being disinherited or bonding to the old, rich, obnoxious and fucking prat of a wizard, who was also a respected professor at Hogwarts or to be disinherited, she had given her parents and her family the finger, walked out the family home and made her own way in the muggle world, on her own terms, after ensuring that she had successfully magically castrated the fucking pervert of a professor that had wanted to bond to her, so she didn’t bring disrespect to her family name. She had never looked back or regretted her decision, she had married her husband Grandpa Harry, and she never regretted the marriage, he may never have had riches or prestige but he had loved and respected her. Her children who were magical (magically stronger than some pure bloods) had been educated in St Lucia at a very small prestige magical school, that taught the children muggle and magical subjects. The couple had decided to emigrate for a time to St Lucia to ensure that their children obtained the best education they could, one of her sons had joined thee St Lucia police and risen through force although he had got a duel masters in potion and defence.

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Thaddeus and Tobias Snape sat in the ministry discussing who on earth had brewed the magic stripping potion, that had been used on Dumbledore and his side kick McGonagall. If he knew who it was, he would have shaken their hand for having the courage and guts to do to Dumbledore and McGonagall what he had wished he could do for years. It was after the defeat of Voldemort, that the real list of crimes that Dumbledore at that school had successfully hidden, the children that had been targeted by his deputy McGonagall had been vast, and when it had been found out that Voldemort had been an pure blood orphaned child that had been repeatedly sent back to an abusive muggle orphanage during the muggle second world war. Dumbledore had not only sent Voldemort nee Tom Riddle back to the orphanage, and not tried to find him a home with a loving family (which had and still was official policy between the muggle and magical societies), but he had like in the case of his eldest son allowed the torture of Tom by other students, and Tom and Severus had not been isolated cases, or the worst case of bullying at Hogwarts.

But Thaddeus, Charles Potter and Lord Black, couldn’t oust Albus from his prominent position at Hogwarts or the Wizengamot. Oh the ministry had wanted him gone, but he had ensured he was revered to much by the magical population, everybody except the ministry workers who had work with him and certain individuals like Thaddeus believed him to be greater than Merlin. Thaddeus had with the support and encouragement of Charles Potter and Auror Moody, tried to get Albus investigated by the aurors for child endangerment and negligence, especially in the case of his son and Tom Riddle where there was proof, but Albus was too beloved by the populace, and now this had happened.

The questioning of the potions masters and brewers had taken it seemed liked forever, even after being questioned by the truth potion, nobody had admitted to brewing the potion. The ministry didn’t care about Albus loss of magic, in fact they were delighted off the record, they were worried that if that paranoid bastard Albus could be made to take the potion, then anybody including themselves could be targeted. So the meeting today was with the unspeakables to see what or who had brewed the potion, but they had no success so far.

A secretary opened the door to the room, and handed Thaddeus a written message, that demanded his presence immediately at Snape Town house, as there was an emergency and a muggle auror were waiting to question him regarding a family matter. Thaddeus made his excuses and signalled for his son to stay, and made his way to the Snape town house post haste, because if there was muggle aurors there waiting to see him it wasn’t going to be good news that was for sure.

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Severus looked up at his childhood home Snape Town House, it was a four story town house that had been kept immaculately by the families’ servants which included the house elves, house elves had always been seen and classed by the Snape family as between being servants and extended family members. As a young child and then an adolescent, Severus had always felt jealous and envious of the elves, they always seemed to have a better relationship with his parents than him. Hell he had always thought that Lord Voldemort or Grimwald would have had a better relationship with his father than him, after all his father had taken great delight in listing his Severus disappointments and praising his peers achievements, he still remembered the time he had been banished to his attic bedroom during his first yuletide holiday from Hogwarts, he had been punished for failing his broom flying lessons, the fact that the marauders had ensured his first lesson he fallen had broken both legs, and had led to him having a fear of flying had been no reason for him to fail, according to his father. No a proper Snape or wizard would just get on with it, he was a disgrace to his heritage and family. 

House elves achievements had been celebrated by his parents, his father especially seemed proud of the children off the house elves, he knew all their names, allowed them to join in with the family celebrations including yuletide. Severus had always seemed to hidden away in his room in the attic, that had been in the old nursery, in the servant’s quarters. Where his peers including James Potter had been allowed to occupy the heir rooms, or even normal family bedrooms when they started Hogwarts at the latest, his father had deemed Severus to immature too move into the rooms, and his word was law, his mother never once took his side that he could remember. In fact, he could still her the lecture she had given him, about he was a disgraced to not only the Snape name but to her family the Princes, and took after her disgraced sister Imelda Prince, who had eloped with a muggle rather than marry Saint Albus Dumbledore, well that had been after the incident in his fourth year, when he had told McGonagall what he thought of her, Dumbledore, the Professors, Hogwarts and her expectations. The old adage of children should only be seen and not heard, had not applied to him, he was expected not to be seen at all, he had often thought to himself during his lonely banishments to his rooms, which had seemed to become for longer periods the older he got, that his family, especially his father would be glad to hear of his death or disappearance, as they never wanted to see him when he was at home. And now he was back, to see his parents, to find out why his bloody magic had returned like an unwanted relative.

Well here goes nothing thought Severus, as he and Nanny Jean walked up the to the doorstep and knocked on the impressive door, where a house elf answered it.

 

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A house elf opened the door and led both Severus and Nanny Jean in to the downstairs parlour, where they were informed a message would be gotten to Master Snape as soon as it was possible, but it would be a very long wait, as he was apparently at the ministry with his son and other renown potion masters being in a conference and he couldn’t be disturbed for anything. 

To Severus amazement, Jean looked around the room with a sneer on her face and managed to convey her apparent disgust regarding the apparent state of Snape house, and how beneath her it was to be asked to wait in the downstairs parlour for his father. She managed to intimidate the elves enough to procure them not only refreshments, but ordered that his father had fifteen minutes to make an appearance, or his father and the poor house elf would regret it, making them wait. The poor elf paled and gulped, and went to do Jeans bidding, when the refreshments had been delivered and the door closed, Jean just looked at Severus and they both laughed and sat down to wait for his father. Yes thought Severus, he was glad to have Nanny Jean and his wife’s family behind him, in fact he secretly thought that Jean could have taken on any magical individual including Dumbledore and won hands down.

 

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Albus Dumbledore was in coherent with rage, how dare the slip of a muggle girl tell him that he was lucky to get a flea bitten council flat in a rundown part of Glasgow. 

What had hurt him the most, was the silence from the magical community, including the ministry. What had become of the adorations he had received daily from numerous anonymous individuals. The power he had wielded behind the scenes, it was like he was a bad smell that the ministry and magical community had finally gotten rid of, not one person had contacted him to help him. His daughter was only visiting him out of duty, since his dismissal from Hogwarts and the estrangement from her bonded, she had gone lived with her real father. Tobias Snape still had custody of their children, but the couple were working though their issues, during her last visit his daughter had demanded he explain to her why he allowed the abuse and bullying of the pupils in his care. 

He knew who was to blame the Daily Prophet, he had read the special edition not only listing his unfortunate but temporary problem with his magic, but the supposed investigation by the muggle aurors into the Snape boy. Numerous individuals had not only contacted the prophet and muggle auror unit to apparently confirm the allegations and offer evidence in regarding the Snape investigation (which the muggle aurors were still proceeding with, even after he had lost his magic). Numerous little arseholes, all definitely from the snake house, had contacted the aurors and the prophet to put what the muggles would say was the boot in. After all the years he had taught and been the headmaster of Hogwarts, and his reputation was in tatters due to the word of a few worthless lying snakes, who like the Severus boy couldn’t take the light hazing of his peers. Well he knew the muggle aurors would have to publicly apologise to him, when they found out for themselves that the Severus boy and the other treacherous snakes had been unmitigated trouble.

He couldn’t even get in contact with his friend Minerva, ever since she had lost her magic as well, her family had reluctantly decided to look after her. And like an unwanted squib relative, they kept her hidden from sight, come on it couldn’t be because it was unsafe for her to walk down Diagon alley or Hogsmede since the article had been published.

His brother Aberforth the idiot, now had control of the Dumbledore seat and money, and he had wasted no time in ensuring that he made Albus know what he had always thought of him. Aberforth apparently been the one to tell his daughter a few home truths, including that Aberforth was her real father not Albus, and the goblins had confirmed it. Aberforth had consented to have IVF treatment with Albus bonded, when it she discovered that Albus could not father children due to a slight accident in his youth, he still remembered the day his bonded had nearly hexed him to death when she found out. No he would have the last laugh and ensure people paid for putting the great and good Albus Dumbledore into this muggle hovel, and not ensuring he was treated like magical royalty.  
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Thaddeus flooed back to Snape House from the ministry, it was the quickest way home. He handed his light weight cloak to Bitsy, who looked distinctly pale and nervous, and was informed the visitors were in the downstairs parlour.

Thaddeus momentary wondered what had put the fear of Merlin in to Bitsy, as the other muggle aurors had been polite and accommodating, oh well he would see for himself he thought as he opened the door to parlour to greet his guests.


	18. Chapter 18

Moody was on his fifth cup of coffee that morning, he had got to the UCOS office early to start helping Brian and their clerical assistant Sarah sort through the documentation from Hogwarts. One thing Moody and the rest of the UCOS unit were glad of was the response from the Daily Prophet article about Dumbledore and the allegations of children being bullied and abused at the school. Although most of the pupils that were effected were from Slytherin house, there had been a number from all the houses, even including surprisingly the Gryffindor house. It seemed if a pupil showed any difference from his peers then he was targeted by bullies, and the teaching staff seemed to condone the abuse. Not all the teaching staff admittedly, the Goblin Fillus Flitwick had been only one of the professors who had tried to actively stamp out the bullying, but he one of a few lone voices in the mist of the rest of the professors.

Even though what Severus had endured had been bad enough, if the accounts from ex pupils was to believed, severus abuse wasn’t the worst by a long shot. Dumbledore had taken the advice from his friend and deputy McGonagall and supported her decisions regarding disciplining of pupils and even professors who had dared to challenge her. 

But what had made Moody skin crawl and feel physically sick (which was saying something, seeing he was a retired magical Auror who had seen some sights in his time), was that Dumbledore had repeatedly returned children back to abusive homes. Usually muggle children or children orphaned and brought up in the muggle world, even though the official policy that Dumbledore would have known was to ensure that all magical children were placed with loving families, that would cherish them. It was looking like Dumbledore for whatever reason had dismissed the official policy and had kept returning the children to the abuse year after year. Moody just wanted to ask him what had been his reasons for screwing up so many people’s lives.

But at least the records from Hogwarts were tying up with people allegations, but it was slow going, but at this rate UCOS would be charging Dumbledore and McGonagall with at least Child endangerment and neglect, and may be manslaughter if one of the reports was true, that a pupil (not Severus) had committed suicide when he left Kings Cross station at the start of the Yuletide vacation, it had apparently been better then returning to the abusive hello hole that was his loving family arms, and Dumbledore had known and refused to give the child sanctuary at Hogwarts during the Yuletide holidays till the child’s allegations could be investigated by the aurors. Apparently it was at the end of the child’s fifth year, and every year for the five years he had been at Hogwarts, Dumbledore had refused to help the child. At least the death of the child must have prayed on Albus soul, as after that year children could opt to stay at Hogwarts for all the vacations except for the summer one.

And then the rest of the UCOS unit turned in, and Jack dropped the bombshell that Severus Snape had apparently been found alive and well, and had as Izzy speculated been living in the normal society. But the investigation was to continue and expand to include all the new reports and evidence cases of pupils being neglected and abused at Hogwarts. When they found out who Severus Snape was Gerry wasn’t the only one in the unit or the Met to use colourful language to describe his shock, but as Brain said with a gleam in his eye he would want to be a fly on the wall when Auror James Potter finds out that Severus Snape is Deputy Commissioner Smith.,   
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Robert was sitting at the top table with Sandra having his breakfast, that he admittedly been cooked to his perfection by the house elves, when he took a call from the Commissioner of the Met police, he spoke to his superior for a few minutes ended the call and motioned for Sandra to meet him outside in the Hogwarts grounds after breakfast before starting their interviews for the day.

Half an hour later Sandra joined Robert outside the main doors of Hogwarts, where Robert updated Sandra “Sandra, that was the commissioner he has just informed me that Severus Snape has been found alive and well apparently, he’s only by immediate boss Deputy Commissioner Smith the git”  
“Well Robert, I suppose that the end of the investigation, pity I still want to string the Dumbledore and his side kick McGonagall up, for what they have done” Sandra commented

“You might well just be able to do that, but you might have to wait in line Sandra. Apparently the investigation is not now investigating our boss disappearance, but the general neglect and abuse of the pupils at this school during Dumbledore’s tenure here, including the abuse and bullying that Severus endured. Apparently there has been reports of at least three suicides by pupils attending Hogwarts because of the attitude and behaviour of Albus and McGonagall, the magical and now the muggle population is out for Dumbledore’s blood, and I don’t think I blame them, do you Sandra?”  
“No, I don’t blame the public for wanting blood, but we better make sure that any arrests we can or do make are water tight Robert, shall we go back and continue the questioning then?” replied Sandra

 

 

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Thaddeus walked into the parlour and was met by his sister in law, Imelda Prince who sitting opposite the auror who had his back to the door. Imelda stood up, crossed the room, kissed Thaddeus and said “Thaddeus dear, let me introduce you to deputy commissioner Smith, you may know him as…………..” and at that moment the auror stood up and turned towards Thaddeus, and Thaddeus found his prayers to Merlin and Lady Magic answered, because there standing before him was his eldest son Severus, after twenty five long years of first hoping which had slowly turned to despair, his son stood before him, and Thaddeus did what he had wanted to do for over twenty five years crossed the room hugged and begged for his son’s forgiveness for his past actions.

To say that Severus was shocked by his father’s reaction to his reappearance was an understatement, he had expected his father to throw him out of the house like he had done in his fifth year, for over twenty-five years Severus had only thought that his father’s reaction would be the same as in his fifth year, in his mind his father had become more of an ogre than he had been. Severus had forgotten the good times he had with his father and parents, all he had remembered were the bad times. What severus had never realised, was that his father had regretted his actions, but had not been able to tell or show Severus his remorse and guilt over his actions, and the fact that when he had found out about Severus bullying and abuse at Hogwarts it had been far too late for Thaddeus to start to make amends, but now hopefully Thaddeus and his bonded Eileen could start to repair the bridges that had been destroyed all those years ago, and get to know Severus and his family now.


	19. living as a muggle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> for paul,yes a very short chapter sorry,and major Dumbledore bashing, I don't think he will ever see he was in the wrong - enjoy

Dumbledore couldn’t believe how primitive the muggles were, where the magical community washed and bathed in hot water that came straight from a tap, the muggles had to make do with freezing cold water. There was no hot water in the flats that he had been placed in, in order to get hot water Dumbledore had to boil the water first using muggle electric kettles and pans, after working out the prohibitive cost in terms of heating the water, he had decided to endure freezing cold baths and washes. There was no heat provided in the flat, no fireplace in order to burn coal or wood, just rectangle metal containers that were fixed to the wall at odd interviews though out the flat, when he had complained to the council receptionist about the lack of hot water and heat, she had said about turning the boiler and heating system on, but he had looked high and low in the flats he was placed in and hadn’t found a cauldron big enough to heat the amount of water he needed. 

When he had introduced himself to his neighbours (muggle heathens the lot of them), he had found himself quickly ostracised, as they labelled him as that scum of the earth who had abused countless children in his care as headmaster, in fact one black resident had stated that he would rather have a member of the British National Party or a member of the terrorist group the IBS as a neighbour then Dumbledore. A council employee had stated that Dumbledore had managed to integrate a divided community in a matter of hours, whilst the council and local organisations had tried for years. Apparently the muggle papers had managed to paint him in a worse light than that magical rag the daily Prophet, he had been moved three times now from different flats in different locations, as soon as told people his name, they ensured he was run out of the immediate area, the muggles would paint names across his door and windows, stones had been thrown his windows at one flat. It had got so bad that the local council had to place him in a half way hostel apparently for his own safety, where members of staff could ensure that the other inhabitants didn’t ensure he have an accident, but it didn’t stop the residents from oh so accidently barging in to his door at night keeping him awake, or spitting in his drinks when the staff turned a blind eye, and ruining his clothes accidently.

He had been watching the news on the muggle devise the TV in the hostels living room with the other residents, when a woman on the television started to tell viewers about the investigation at Hogwarts, and apparently what had started the muggle aurors to investigate, namely the fact that the Snape lad had disappeared due to an accumulation of bullying and torture that ended with the fifth year incident. Apparently the residents and staff was shocked that Severus had to endure a little light hazing, and then the muggle bitch had insinuated that there were other worse incidents of child abuse that had occurred during his tenure as headmaster. He had ended up in the muggle hospital emergency department that night with multiple broken ribs, nose, an arm and bruising, instead of the aurors arresting the muggle who had beaten him up, they had said they were still investigating the incident, but they didn’t think they would be able to prove who Dumbledore’s attackers were as nobody had seen the attack. And when Albus had complained about the unprovoked attack to his named care worker at the hospital, the bitch had looked at him and said “Really Albus, surely you can take a little bit light hazing after all, come on, after all what’s good for the goose is better for the gander”, no the muggles he had found out to his cost, was sorry to say were just uncivilised and rude to their betters and elders, the disrespect he had from them just showed just as backward they were, after all nobody in the magical community would have dared disrespected or treated him as these muggles had. 

It wasn’t as if Dumbledore could move to another area, no the muggle aurors had demanded that as part of his bail conditions, he be made to stay only certain parts of Glasgow. He had to go to the local Auror station every day, to prove to them that he hadn’t absconded from the country. Albus knew as only the righteous did that one day soon, that his tenure and stance as headmaster of Hogwarts would be seen as a time of golden opportunity and learning for the children entrusted into his care, and then he would ensure that certain individuals felt his wrath, Albus was not a vindictive man normally, but for the humiliation and torture he had endured, he would make an exception and ensure that certain individuals would pay dearly.

But at least that bitch Imelda Prince would pay for castrating him before she eloped with that muggle, oh the bitch’s magical core and levels were just above a squibs. He had suggested to her father, that for her own good and the family reputation, he would reluctantly bond with her. He had been admittedly twenty years older than her, when he had agreed with her father for her to bond after her graduation from Hogwarts, but he knew the prestige and influence he would gain from the bonding was worth putting up with a squib, after all she would be kept busy with the numerous children they would have. He had decided that they should begin their bonding relationship before she graduated from Hogwarts, and one evening when he had organised a detention for her, so they could experiment together, she had hexed his balls off, when he tried to have sexual intercourse with her. Soon after that she eloped from the family home, well James Potter, being the excellent auror he was had tracked her down in the muggle community where she was apparently a well-respected widow (that would soon change when her family and acquaintances found out what she had done to the great and good Dumbledore) and arrested her, she would soon be paying for her crimes.


	20. James point of view!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yes I'm sorry, no James or Siruis bashing in this story, another short chapter again - enjoy.

Auror James Potter had grown up since being one of the marauders at Hogwarts, he knew what the rumours and accusations were around the ministry and now the Met, that he had only got to where he was though his families contacts in the ministry; but he hadn’t, he had risen through the ranks like Severus had in the Met. He didn’t even feel envious or jealous of his brother now being the heir to the Potter Lordship, his brother deserved everything he got, James now knew that he would have made a rotten Lord, and his father had away acknowledged him as his son, just not the heir to the Lordship. 

That day at Hogwarts when he confronted Tobias Snape, he would admit had been angry that the unsolved disappearance of Severus was to be investigated again, and that Dumbledore and the professors of Hogwarts would once again get off scot free. He had really believed that Severus had joined Voldemort’s organisation, and he and his friends had been the reasons for his joining the organisation, and truth be told when young Tobias had accused him of being guilty for his brother’s death, he agreed with him. For years he had tried quietly to get an investigation conducted about Hogwarts and the apparent child abuse and neglect that had been condoned there by Dumbledore and his side kick. In fact, that was the reason he had been side-lined in the Aurors, he had once been informed by his superior that if he wanted to get to the top of the Aurors and be the next Amelia Bones, then he would drop his investigations against greater than Merlin Dumbledore. But he hadn’t, and had continually tried with the support of Black, his father, Moody and others to gather evidence to bring Dumbledore to trail, but like a giant eel, he had always managed to slip out of the allegations. Then the Met and the Auror division had merged, and he had expressed a wish to become the department head of the UCOS unit, and the reason being to ensure that they investigated the allegations of child abuse etc. at Hogwarts. No he had never wanted the UCOS unit to investigate the Severus bullying, only to spare Severus parents the heartache of reliving those times, but even though his plans had never come to fruition, Merlin and Lady Magic had smiled on him, and the investigation had commenced, and Dumbledore and hopefully the other incompetent professors would be held to account over their inactions at Hogwarts.

He would never forgive Headmaster Dumbledore for ruining countless children’s lives, and top of that list was Severus Snape, when he found out that Severus was alive and well, he had thanked Merlin and all the Gods above. James Potter could now live with himself a bit better, he had spent the night with Lord Black, their younger brother and his son Harry getting drunk, and trying not to remember their days at Hogwarts, and especially not the fourth year incident with Severus and Lupin in the Shrieking Shack. Admittedly James siblings and children had not been educated at Hogwarts, their families had ensured they had been educated abroad, their families even going far enough to sponsor disadvantaged magical children through other learning establishments then Hogwarts.

But what he and Sirius could never adequately convey to people, was the absolute horror of that night in the Shrieking Shack, when they had all come face to face with the werewolf. Sirius that night had managed to find him and tell him of Lupins plans, and James without thought to his own safety had gone to stop Severus form encountering a fully form werewolf, and he had almost been too late, and he would never forget the gleam in the werewolf eyes when he had eyed up his prey, and then he knew Lupin had wanted to kill Severus or at the least turn him! After that incident the marauders had slowly started to drift apart, and the incident in the fifth year, still made him sick to his stomach, how could the rat and mild mannered Lupin pull a stunt against Severus like that, oh he and Siruis had taken the fall for it, but that had effectively been the end of their friendship. 

When Moody had cornered him that day, to accuse him of holding a non-existent life bond over Severus head, admittedly after Moody had given him a left hook to the face. James had been astounded, he had never thought that Severus had owed him a life debt, in fact if Lady Bloody magic had made one, he would have refused the life debt, which would have been his right, according to the rues of Lady Magic. Well after that confrontation Moody had become his mentor (even though Moody had been dismissed from the aurors), and now they were friends. So when Moody had informed him that morning that Severus was alive and doing very well for himself, James had been overjoyed, now the past wouldn’t haunt him and Sirius so much.

No James smiled to himself, he was going to ensure that Albus to many names Dumbledore paid for his crimes one way or another, and he had found the perfect opportunity. Admittedly it involved using Severus squib Aunt, but he was going to ensure that at the very least Dumbledore went down for the attempted rape of a minor. The head of the department that investigated such crimes, had started investigating the allegations against Dumbledore, oh it helped that Dumbledore had admitted to James and Sirius what he had done, and then there was also the evidence form the portrait from Dumbledore’s office, who had witnessed the whole incident James had been sure to inform the officers undertaking to investigate the allegations of rape against Dumbledore. No! even if Dumbledore managed to once again to dodge the bullet regarding his action at Hogwarts, he would ensure that Dumbledore was put away for something, James was on a mission to ensure that Dumbledore finally paid for his numerous crimes against the children that had been in his care. 

But first now on his list, was the sorting out of the magical auror department, he now had the authority to go through the list of aurors, and dismiss all aurors who were not up to the job and responsibility, and top of the list were the Dumbledore supporters and order of the Phoenix members (he and Sirius had never joined the vigilante organisation). No, he would have rather have the numerous incompetent aurors then those idiots, and top of the list of his list to be investigated and dismissed if he had his way, was Amelia Bones, Kingsley, Shacklebolt and Arthur Wesley youngest Ronald (incompetent, a bully and thick), then he would start on the others. No now was the time to ensure the filth that had brought down the aurors department over the years were cleared out, the only problem was that his direct boss would be Severus. He hoped Severus could and would forgive him, because he needed the support of a good boss to do what needed to done.


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lilly bashing you have been warned, so I really loath Lillys character, just as much or in some ways more than dumbledores - enjoy

Severus looked at the report on his desk about the magical aurors, and looked at James Potter his subordinate and Department head for the newly formed Magical Investigation Unit “Are you absolutely sure you want to do this James” Severus asked with disbelief in his voice “If you do this, the Magical police department will be culled from two hundred to just nine officer and that includes you as their head”

“Yes! Severus, I most definitely want to do this, the reasons for the smaller unit is in my report. A unit of nine officers, can I honestly think handle the most complex Magical crimes, most crimes after all are run of the mill, robbery, sexual crimes etc. which the normal rank and file officers and departments are better placed and trained then their magical equivalent” James passionately replied “The rest of the officers from the old magical aurors will be deployed in areas and departments better suited for them, ten have already asked and been to transferred to the special police ops department”

“But to dismiss hundred aurors who you feel are not fit for the job, which includes surprisingly Madame Bones, Shaklebolt, Kingsley and Wesley and other high prominent aurors. Not that I won’t support you, but I have to know your reasoning for having them dismissed from the force, the list of aurors you have here, well…………they appear to be prominent and respected light side sympathisers, and have long and distinguished records” Severus commented

“And that is the problem, all the aurors listed have in one way or another comprised at least one investigation in their past, and in the case of the first four you mentioned have conveniently not investigated certain prominent magical members of the population, even when there was evidence that they should be investigated. Most of the officers on that list actively supported Dumbledore or were a part of the vigilante group the order of the phoenix, and they made the death eaters appear tame in comparison. Believe me after you have seen the hexes and curses the supposed light side army used on its enemy, you would almost have sided with the death eaters. Just a word of caution Severus don’t ask re-tired auror Moody his views on the list, he still hasn’t forgiven Madame Bones from blocking certain investigations, and one included the death of a young child, she deemed it not in the public interest to proceed, where Moody believes it was because the death was due to overzealous Phoenix order members” James volunteered the information

“So one of the next investigations that UCOS will be conducting will be…………” Severus started  
“The investigation of certain individual’s deaths and torture, one being the torture into madness of Lord and Lady Longbottom, nobody ever believed the death eaters blamed for the Longbottom torture were guilty of it, and Moody always found it very convenient that most of the death eaters caught after the fall of Voldemort were imprisoned without trail or killed when being arrested. A lot of families Severus are still looking for answers, oh not the prominent families and individuals, but the ones who had nobody to fight their corner, the poor and those deemed undesirable by the magical society, which meant Dumbledore and his cronies decisions always took prevalence. Before you asked, yes I took my son Harry and his muggle relatives and ran to America, and we lived out the war there. My father was aware and supported my decision, there was no way I was going to risk my son’s life on a false prophecy that Dumbledore had been apparently told, my son was and will never be a human sacrifice for any side in any war” James passionately continued

“But did Lilly support you? I remember that she passionately supported Dumbledore and the light side. The Lilly I knew would have stayed and fought……….”

“And that was the reason Severus, we parted and divorced, I could never stay with a partner who would put somebody’s ideals and organisation needs above the safety of her family and most importantly her son. Severus, because you left the British Magical community when you did, you never knew the civil war that tore our society apart, there are families still decimated by the war. Children orphaned because of overzealous light side fighters, yes I suppose you call me a coward for running, but my sons and his muggle relative’s safety always came first. And living in America, allowed me to grow up further, and see how the magical and muggle society could live with and integrate………….I will always believe to my dying day Dumbledore and the dam war just hurt the wrong people in our society” James passionately concluded

“Well, I will speak to the Commissioner today, and the reorganisation will hopefully be signed off by him by the end of the week. And the fun will then start, when we give these listed officers their marching orders” Severus sighed

“Ah! Severus.................Has anybody from the sex unit contacted your Aunt Imelda yet? Because there is something you may want to know” James asked Severus, and Severus just groaned when James filled him in with the ongoing investigation, regarding his aunt and Dumbledore. Just when thought Severus, had Dumbledore decided to play God in other peoples life’s, and ruin them for his own selfish needs and wants. 

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Newly appointed assistant deputy commissioner for the magical department and other units entered the UCOS units offices. He spied Moody and gave him the thumbs up, Moody stopped what he was doing and introduced James to the members of the unit

“So the meeting went well then, what has agreed to and who is getting their marching order James?” Moody asked

“He agreed to every thing in the report Moody, and everybody that needed to go will be gone as soon as possible. Thanks to you and your advice, I sat down with him and Sirius and we discussed Hogwarts and what had happened, it cleared the air. If I had known that bastard Dumbledore had used us like that, a bloody life debt! HE MADE UP A BLOODY LIFE DEBT, what was he thinking off the arsehole, no way would I ever except such a thing from any one. And then when he told me about the supposed prank that me and Sirius did in our fifth year, which we didn’t do. I as I told you after you calmed down after our confrontation, the Areseholes who did it, must have used the poly juice potion to mimic us, which means……………”

“It had to be Lilly helped by Lupin who organised and was the main instigators of the prank, Shit James, this investigation is turning out to be a lot worse then we all thought!” Moody concluded

“What is Poly Juice, and who is this Lilly, Lupin we know who he is?” Jack asked James and Moody

“Lilly is my estranged bonded, we bonded almost straight out of Hogwarts. Poly Juice is a potion that when ingested with a persons piece of hair, turns you into the person for a time. Lilly was the only person apart from Severus in our year, hell the no whole of Hogwarts that time who could brew the potion. And it now seems that Lupin hated Severus so much, that he would do anything to hurt him; and before you ask, the afternoon of the supposed prank, both me and Sirius was in the library trying to complete last minute revision for the bloody horrendous potion exam the next day. We both needed to pass the Potions OWL with an Exceeds Expectation to have any hope of following a good career. And yes the attendance records for the library that afternoon, would have both our names, in fact you could even confirm it with the Librarian, it’s not every day she faints at the language Sirius used to describe the potion examiners. We generally believed the prank had been me and Sirius mouthing and hexing Severus, not humiliating him like that, in fact since the fourth year incident with Lupin. Me and Sirius had both started to mature and stop the pranking and hexing of others, the incident as I explained to both Moody and now Severus, made both of us grow up. Now I know why Flitch was such a bastard to me and Sirius during our detentions with him” James said, Brian just looked at the others present including Izzy, and then went and drew a line from Lilly Potters and Lupin’s names to the fifth year incident. One of the questions now it seemed, was what on earth did Lilly Potter get out of being part one of the organisers of the humiliating bulling of Severus, in their frith year.  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Severus looked out of his office window, he would soon see the commissioner as he had promised James Potter, to start the drastic changes the magical auror department would undergo. Ever since Severus, James and Sirius had that frank conversation about their school years, that had started to find common ground, to Severus surprise both James and Sirius had matured over the years. Perhaps in the future a tentative friendship could arise between them. But as his wife had questioned about the fifth year incident, why on earth Lilly help Lupin pull of the prank, it was like she wanted to finish their friendship that day for her own reasons, only merlin known to her.


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this chapter makes sense! I'm tired, but had to write this up and posted, the idea in this chapter has plagued me all day to be written, as always Dumbldore and others bashing - enjoy

James Potter knocked on Severus office door, it was more out of respect for his superior than anything else. After “an enter”, he opened the door “James, I spoke to the commissioner about your proposals and we have relooked with the support and advice of our HR department the personal records of all current serving magical police officers .........”

James heart sank, just like the magical ministry and the auror department there, the aurors who needed to be dismissed would be protected by Dumbledore’s minions “Is there a problem with the list of officers I compiled for you, I really think that sir that………” and before James could finish Severus interrupted him “There is no problem per say with the list, but the commissioner on my recommendation, your report and HR audit of the personal records has decided to dismiss 120 of the current magical auror department, these are officers who records have shown they hindered or stopped investigations in to crimes that may have been committed. Another 50 officers will be demoted to the rank of constable, as it is felt they have not the experience or the capability at present to work effectively at a higher rank in the Met. I am afraid that the commissioner with his executive officer team are disturbed by the rampant favouritism that became apparent when we looked further into the records of the auror department. But I also wanted to personally inform you that you will not be the head of the new magical detective unit at present….”

James heart sank at hearing this, he obviously was to be one of the officers to be demoted to a lesser rank, if he was he vowed to suck it up as the muggles said, and work hard to prove that he had what it took to be a high ranking police officer in the Met “Why Sir?” James questioned

“After reading and listening to your concerns about apparent crimes that may have been committed during and since the magical civil conflicts form the muggle second world war; I proposed to the Commissioner that the Met has not the resources or expertise to investigate these crimes. The commissioner allowed me to approach the united nations and their department of human rights, and they have seconded you to head up a department from The Hague, that will be primarily concerned with investigating any apparent crimes against humanity in the magical society. Needless to say you will be closely working with your muggle counterparts there, but your main focus at present will be to investigate the crimes that may or have been committed in the British Magical Community since the muggle second world war, the United nations and the commissioner are hoping that is this far enough in the past to ensure that most of the crimes that were committed can be investigated” Severus finished. James just looked at Severus in shock, not only was the Severus and his superiors taking his report about the present magical auror division seriously. But they had enabled James to hopefully lead a team to investigate, arrest and hopefully prosecute the members of both sides of the magical society that had committed the horrendous crimes against there fellow magical citizens. James could now help give justice and voice to the large disfranchised group of magical society, and bring to justice the prominent and perceived untouchable members of society individuals including Dumbledore and his supporters hopefully, who committed the crimes that had divided and decimated the British Magical community. 

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Later that evening Moody caught up with James as he was leaving the Mets head offices, and dragged him along to have a drink with the rest of the lads from the UCOS unit. After all Moody and the lads wanted to know if the rumours were true, that Severus had ensured that James was in the group of officers that were being demoted or dismissed, Moody was just as astounded as James had been, when James informed of the secondment to the united nations crimes against humanity investigative justice department, and that he was to be heading the investigations of the crimes that prominent magical individuals had committed against the disfranchised sections of the magical community. Moody summarised it up nicely for them all, when he said that perhaps now the supporters and members of Dumbledore’s side in the civil conflict would be brought finally to justice. 

James explained his passion and obsession with bring to justice the individuals who had committed the crimes for Dumbledore’s light side. He had started to be disillusioned after he graduated from Hogwarts, and Dumbledore tried to get him and Sirius to join his Villante group the Order of the Phoenix, which he wouldn't on principle because first of all he was an auror (admittedly a newly qualified one) but he thought membership of any fighting group compromised his position as an auror. Then he saw and heard the blind following of Dumbledore’s orders, especially when Lilly his ex-bonded, put the needs of the light side and order of the phoenix above the safety of her only son and relatives, that was when he began to realise that Dumbledore had another agenda, he felt that Dumbledore wasn’t evil, but that he thought that people were chess pieces in the conflict to be sacrificed as he wanted. When James had arranged to emigrate to America with his family and Lilly family to avoid not only the conflict, but to ensure Harry was not adversely effected by a supposed prophecy that concerning the Voldemort that had been overheard. Lilly had presented him with an ultimatum, he either stayed in Britain joined Dumbledore’s order and put Harrys life in danger because Dumbledore willed it, or flee like a rat, in which case she was going to leave and divorce him, as she couldn’t be bonded to a coward who wouldn’t fight for the right course. Well James had chosen to leave Britain with his family, Harry was the most important thing in his life, not playing soldiers for Dumbledore. That stance had cost him his marriage to Lilly.

After another couple of drinks with the UCOS lads, James told them of what he had heard about the order of the Phoenix and its members. How they had committed crimes including torture, maiming and killing indiscriminately on the orders of their superiors in the order. The members had included prominent members of the Aurors and the ministry, so when Voldemort had been defeated for once and all, any requests to investigate the crimes committed during the conflict by the light side had been dropped, and aurors like James who tried to investigate the reported crimes, were side-lined by their superiors. James then recounted from his memory just a few of the crimes that the members of the order had committed, the crimes James recounted he argues would by no means nearly the worse he had heard about, the worse crimes still gave him nightmares that even the dreamless sleep potion couldn’t banish. As James told the lads, this opportunity was not for him to advance his career, but for all the disfranchised individuals who had questions they needed answering, and to hopefully finally ensure that another Dumbledore or Voldemort couldn’t corrupt magical society to do their bidding.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Auror Tonks had heard the rumours going around the magical auror department that a few them were to be made redundant by the muggle Met police. It was nice she said to Auror Ronald Wesley and Auror Kingsley to know that they were save from the cull. After all they had the support of Wizengamot light side, that would always ensure they were protected, just as they always ensured that certain crimes were not investigated, or if they were, the investigations were side-lined, as Dumbledore had always said at the order meetings, what they did and accomplished was for the greater good of the magical community. But if the rumours were correct, it was a shame that Severus Snape had ensured his nemesis James Potter was dismissed, perhaps Auror Potter would realise why you shouldn’t piss off your superiors like he had done. Imagine Tonks surprise when her group of 120 aurors were informed that they had the rest of the day to clear out their desks as they were being made redundant. But the worst news for her group of aurors, was that Auror Potter, instead of being kicked out the police force, was now heading an international police department with the remit to investigate the crimes that had been committed during the civil conflict with Voldemort over a quarter of a century ago, and she knew that she would like many of the aurors here and other order of the phoenix members would be having sleepless nights awaiting for the knock on their door that signalled they were being arrested for the crimes they had committed on the orders of Dumbledore and his light side.


End file.
